The 78th round Multi-Indicator Survey (MIS) was conducted in 2020 starting in January 2020. The survey was conducted by the National Sample Surveys Office (NSSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India.

The survey covers all the districts in the country and the comprehensive data can be found here in csv format as well as the original text files. For the purpose of this analysis we look at the data for the major cities in India – Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune and see how our cities fare in general and in comparison to each other on some parts of the survey.

Finances

The survey covers various aspects of people’s finances, but we consider two questions – whether a person aged 15 yrs or above has a bank account in their name, and whether a person is indebted to a institutional or non-institutional agency.

In all the cities, the coverage of bank accounts is high. However, in comparison to, say Bengaluru and Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai lag behind with more than 10% of the surveyed not having a bank account.

Debt is defined as money of Rs. 500 or more owed to either an institution or to informal agencies like friends or relatives. In the case of debt, those in Bengaluru and Chennai have a much higher access to debt than those in other cities, with Mumbai being the lowest.

Access to Public Amenities

Easier access to public amenities like public transport or healthcare can make access to livelihoods and quality of life better.

In terms of access to public transport within half a kilometre, that is at a walkable distance, most cities cover more than 95% of the population. The exceptions are Delhi and Pune where 10% of the population has no public transport options within 0.5 Km.

However, when it comes to coverage for health, in the form of primary health centres within one kilometre, all cities except Pune cover more than 95% of their population. In the case of Pune, the coverage is less than 85% and there is scope for a lot of improvement.

Access to public spaces within one kilometre is defined as having a public space like a park, playground or lake within one kilometre. In this parameter most cities struggle to provide such areas to its citizens. Only Kolkata, Pune and Bengaluru have good access to such spaces. In the case of Chennai and Mumbai less than 2/3rds of its citizens have access to public spaces within a short distance.

Migrant Challenges

The survey tries to find out if people who have migrated into an area are facing any issues due to their being migrants. For our analysis we look at those who have migrated from other states into a city and if they are facing any problems in the city because of that.

In general our cities are friendly to migrants with only a small percentage of migrants facing any issues. Kolkata is the most friendly to migrants with less than 1% of the migrants facing any issues while Delhi and Pune fare worst, with around 1 in 25 migrants surveyed facing problems.

Conclusions

When it comes to access to basic public services like public transport and healthcare our cities seem to do a reasonably good job. However, access to a public transport facility like a bus stop does not capture whether there are frequent buses that are not overcrowded. Similarly the survey does not capture the quality of healthcare provided by these facilities, only the distance to them.