UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 34 of 150

Correct — C, HIV Test. HIV testing had been part of the biomarker component of NFHS-4 (2015-16), but it was dropped from the design of NFHS-5, whose fieldwork was just getting under way in 2019 when this paper was set. Everything else in the option list is covered: NFHS-5 measured blood pressure and blood glucose — indeed it widened the age range over which those measurements are taken and added waist and hip circumference — so both high blood pressure and diabetes are within its scope, and death registration was one of the brand-new topics NFHS-5 introduced. HIV testing is therefore the single item the survey does not include.

• (a)High blood-pressure — Blood pressure measurement is part of the survey's clinical, anthropometric and biochemical component, and NFHS-5 expanded the age range over which it is measured rather than dropping it.
• (b)Diabetes — NFHS-5 records blood glucose levels, again over a wider age range than the previous round, so diabetes prevalence is very much one of the things the survey reports.
• (d)Registration of death — This is the opposite of an exclusion — death registration was one of the new topics added in NFHS-5, alongside preschool education, disability, access to a toilet facility, bathing practices during menstruation, and methods and reasons for abortion.

The National Family Health Survey is a large-scale, multi-round household sample survey conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, as the nodal agency for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with technical support from the international DHS programme. Each round supplies district- and State-level estimates on fertility, family planning, child and maternal health, nutrition and — since NFHS-4 — a range of non-communicable disease and biomarker measurements. Because the survey is redesigned between rounds, some modules are added and some retired, and knowing what changed from NFHS-4 to NFHS-5 is exactly the discrimination this question demands.

Read the question as 'which module did NFHS-5 give up?' rather than 'which of these is unhealthy?'. NFHS-5 moved decisively towards non-communicable disease and civil-registration information — blood pressure, blood glucose, waist-hip measurement, death registration — while HIV testing, which NFHS-4 had carried, was left out. India's HIV numbers instead come mainly from the sentinel surveillance and periodic estimation exercises run through the National AIDS Control Organisation, which is a reminder that a survey dropping a module does not mean the country stops tracking the disease. Anchor the item to its date: in December 2019 NFHS-5 was in the field, not yet published.

• NFHS-5 dropped HIV testing, which had been part of NFHS-4 (2015-16).
• New topics introduced in NFHS-5 included preschool education, disability, access to a toilet facility, death registration, bathing practices during menstruation, and methods and reasons for abortion.
• The clinical-anthropometric-biochemical component was expanded: waist and hip circumference were added, and the age range for blood pressure and blood glucose measurement was widened.
• The survey is conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, as nodal agency for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• NFHS-5 fieldwork ran in two phases across 2019-21; it was under way, and unpublished, at the time of this December 2019 paper.
• Present-day note for a 2026 reader: the NFHS-5 fact sheets and national report were released between 2020 and 2022.

• Assuming a large health survey must cover every disease — module coverage is a design choice that changes from round to round.
• Reading 'does not include' as 'is not a health problem in India'; HIV testing was dropped for survey-design reasons, not because HIV stopped mattering.
• Confusing NFHS with the Sample Registration System or the Census — the NFHS is a periodic sample survey, not a complete count or a continuous registration system.

UPPSC asks the NFHS as a contents-and-coverage question — which round, which module, which new topic — while UPSC more often uses NFHS findings indirectly, inside statement-based questions on nutrition, anaemia, sex ratio or institutional delivery.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The National Family Health Survey in India is conducted by which of the following as the nodal agency?

  • (a)National Statistical Office
  • (b)International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai
  • (c)Office of the Registrar General of India
  • (d)Indian Council of Medical Research

  Answer(b) International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai — IIPS is the nodal agency for the survey, working for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following was included for the first time in the National Family Health Survey-5?

  • (a)HIV testing
  • (b)Registration of deaths
  • (c)Height and weight measurement of children
  • (d)Immunisation coverage

  Answer(b) Registration of deaths — it was among the new topics added in NFHS-5, whereas HIV testing was dropped and anthropometry and immunisation coverage had been covered in earlier rounds as well.