ISS 2016 Statistics Paper-2 Solution: Question 74 (Major Sources of Health Statistics)

Continuing our question-by-question walk through the ISS Statistics Paper-2 previous year papers, today's post takes up Question 74 from the 2016 exam. The approach stays the same every time: read the question slowly, reason out the answer from first principles rather than guessing, and then check the result against the official answer key.

Quick Summary

• Topic:Official Statistics — Sources of Health Statistics in India

• Question Reference:ISS 2016, Statistics Paper-2, Question 74

• Correct Answer:(d) 1, 2 and 3 — SRS, CRS and NFHS are all major sources of health statistics in India

The Question, As Asked in the Paper

Question 74.Which of the following are the major sources of 'Health Statistics' in India?

1. Sample Registration System (SRS)

2. Civil Registration System (CRS)

3. National Family Health Survey (NFHS)

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

• (a) 1 and 2 only

• (b) 2 and 3 only

• (c) 1 and 3 only

• (d) 1, 2 and 3

Step 1: Understand What the Question Is Actually Testing

This question does not ask you to calculate anything. It falls under the "Official Statistics" part of the Paper-2 syllabus, where the ISS exam checks whether you know the real institutional machinery that produces the numbers used in Indian policy-making — in this case, health statistics such as birth rates, death rates, infant mortality, and family welfare indicators. The safest way to answer a statement-based question like this is to examine each of the three listed items completely independently before combining them, because the exam deliberately mixes one wrong-looking statement in with two correct ones to catch candidates who pick an answer from memory alone.

Step 2: Examine Statement 1 — Sample Registration System (SRS)

The Sample Registration System is run by the Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) and is a large-scale, continuous demographic survey based on a representative sample of villages and urban blocks across the country. Field enumerators track every birth and death that occurs in the sampled units through a dual-record system (continuous enumeration plus a periodic retrospective survey), and the two records are matched to produce reliable estimates. SRS is the single most important source in India for vital rates — the Crude Birth Rate, Crude Death Rate, and Infant Mortality Rate at the national and state level all come from SRS. This makes Statement 1 correct: SRS is unambiguously a major source of health statistics.

Step 3: Examine Statement 2 — Civil Registration System (CRS)

The Civil Registration System is the legal, event-driven registration of every birth and death in the country, mandated under the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969. Unlike SRS, which is sample-based and estimates rates for the whole population, CRS is meant to be a complete administrative record — every birth and death is supposed to be registered as it happens, at the local municipal or panchayat level, and the data is compiled upward to the state and national level by the RGI. Because CRS captures actual vital events (not estimates), it is also a major source of health statistics in India, particularly for cause-of-death statistics in areas where the Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD) scheme applies. Statement 2 is therefore correct as well.

Step 4: Examine Statement 3 — National Family Health Survey (NFHS)

The National Family Health Survey is a large-scale, periodic household survey conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, as the nodal agency. NFHS goes well beyond simple birth and death counts — it collects detailed information on fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition, anaemia, immunization coverage, and increasingly, non-communicable diseases. It is conducted roughly once every four to five years (NFHS-1 in 1992-93 through NFHS-5 in 2019-21) and is one of the most heavily cited data sources in Indian public health research and policy. Statement 3 is also correct.

Step 5: Combine the Statements and Match the Answer Code

Having verified each statement on its own merit, all three — SRS, CRS, and NFHS — qualify as major sources of health statistics in India. They are not competitors; they are complementary, since one is sample-based estimation, one is complete legal registration, and one is a periodic household survey covering a far wider range of indicators. Since Statements 1, 2, and 3 are all correct, the matching option is:

Final Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

This matches the official ISS 2016 Statistics Paper-2 answer key, which also lists option (d) as correct for Question 74.

Pro Tip: The trap in this question is assuming "health statistics" must mean one single authoritative source, the way many candidates assume only CRS (being a legal registration system) "counts." The way this kind of question is usually taught is to build a quick three-row mental table — agency, method, and what it measures — for SRS, CRS, and NFHS before looking at the options at all. Students who drill this habit of separating "who runs it," "how is the data collected," and "what does it actually measure" until it becomes automatic, a technique used in the official-statistics modules at Sunrise Classes, rarely fall for this kind of "exactly one of these is correct" trap again.

Why This Question Matters

Health statistics questions like this one are a recurring theme across ISS Paper-2 papers because the exam is not purely about estimation theory — a meaningful chunk of it tests whether a candidate, who will eventually work inside India's official statistical system, actually understands how that system is built. Knowing that SRS, CRS, and NFHS serve different but overlapping purposes is directly useful knowledge, not just exam trivia: it is the same distinction a working statistician needs when deciding which dataset to cite for a given indicator. Getting comfortable with the full landscape of Indian data-producing institutions (SRS, CRS, NFHS, NSSO, Census, CSO) pays off across many such questions in every year's paper, not just this one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main difference between SRS and CRS?

SRS is a sample-based survey covering a representative set of villages and urban blocks, used to estimate vital rates like birth rate and death rate for the whole population. CRS, in contrast, is a complete legal registration system where every birth and death in the country is meant to be individually recorded as it occurs. SRS gives you reliable estimates quickly; CRS aims for full coverage but has historically suffered from under-registration in many states.

How often is the National Family Health Survey conducted?

NFHS is conducted roughly once every four to five years, not annually. Five rounds have been completed so far, from NFHS-1 in 1992-93 to NFHS-5 in 2019-21, each one expanding the range of health and nutrition indicators covered.

Which organization is responsible for running the Sample Registration System?

SRS is run by the Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI), which falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The RGI is also the nodal body for the Census of India and for coordinating the Civil Registration System's data compilation.

Does CRS provide cause-of-death data as well?

Yes, in areas covered by the Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD) scheme, which is linked to the Civil Registration System. However, MCCD coverage is still uneven across India, mostly concentrated in urban and institutional deaths, which is one reason SRS and NFHS remain important complementary sources.

Why doesn't the Census count as a source of health statistics here?

The decennial Census primarily records population counts, demographic composition, and socio-economic characteristics at a point in time; it is not designed to continuously track vital events like births, deaths, or detailed health indicators the way SRS, CRS, and NFHS are. That is exactly why the question restricts itself to these three systems rather than including the Census.

Is this kind of "which of the following are correct" statement-based question common in ISS Paper-2?

Yes, statement-based questions with "select the correct code" options appear very frequently across the Official Statistics and Applied Statistics sections of ISS Paper-2. They reward candidates who evaluate each statement independently rather than trying to recall a single memorized fact, which is exactly the approach used to solve this one.

If anything here was unclear, or if you solved this one differently, drop a comment below — working through the disagreement is often where the real learning happens. And if you know a fellow ISS aspirant who is grinding through the same papers, feel free to share this post with them; one more pair of eyes on the same question rarely hurts.