Overview of phone surveys conducted by authors between May and November 2020
| Survey name | Geography | Timeline | Purpose | Target respondent breakdown | Strategy to reach target respondents | Women’s response rate (out of total respondents)* |
| COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) | Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh | Round 1: April 2020 | Tracked status of KAP related to COVID-19; monitored food insecurity, unemployment, and foregone healthcare. | In 50% of HHs, we targeted male respondents; in 50%, we targeted female respondents. | If person who answered the phone was not target gender, asked to pass phone to HH member of target gender. If pass was refused or not possible, proceeded to interview person who picked up. | 37.6% female (N=6490 responses) |
| Round 2: May 2020 | 31.0% female (N=5816 responses) | |||||
| Round 3: November 2020 | In addition to objectives in Rounds 1 and 2, collected information on women’s digital/mobile use and access. | Both male and female respondents targeted for each HH surveyed. | If both male and female could not be reached in one call, made appointment and called back—placing up to seven calls per HH to reach both members. | 42.6% female (N=7854 responses) | ||
| COVID-19 Rural Economy | Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh | Round 1: May 2020 | Assessed status of agriculture, rural labour markets, and social protection schemes in the context of COVID-19. | Agricultural decision-makers (ADMs) targeted. | If person who answered phone was not ADM, asked to pass phone to ADM. If ADM not available, asked to speak to male head of HH. If male head of HH not available, proceeded with female head of HH. | 11.8% female (N=4576 responses) |
| Round 2: July 2020 | ADMs targeted for agriculture module. For other modules: in 50% of HHs, we targeted male respondents; in 50%, we targeted female respondents. | Completed agriculture module with ADM, regardless of gender. Then, if ADM was not target gender for remaining modules, asked for phone pass to HH member of target gender. If pass was refused or not possible, proceeded with ADM for all other modules. | 21.2% female (N=5004 responses) | |||
| Round 3: September 2020 | 25.8% female (N=5200 responses) | |||||
| POSHAN Abhiyaan Survey | Rajasthan, Jharkhand | May 2020 | Assessed coverage of nutrition programmes and maternal and child nutritional status. | Across all HHs, we targeted pregnant and lactating women (PLWs). | Asked whoever picked up to pass phone to PLW in the HH. If PLW was not available, made appointment and called back—placing up to seven calls per HH to reach a PLW. | 100.0% female (N=1169 responses) |
Phone numbers were collected before the pandemic, during earlier, in-person surveys that were representative of specific subsamples (eg, agricultural households, households with pregnant and lactating women) within India. The household phone numbers from these earlier surveys were used to create new sampling frames for the phone surveys.
*‘Women’s response rate’ refers to the proportion of women respondents in the final set of completed or partially completed surveys. For each survey, the final set of respondents was itself a subset of a larger sample, the size of which was predetermined to accommodate our target margin of error, as well as provide a buffer against non-responding households (ie, households that we could not reach). In table 1, N represents the total number of sampled individuals who completed or partially completed our survey.
HHs, households.