Surveyor physical and emotional well-being: learning from Indian context

Quality data collection is a key aspect of every research. The data is often collected by surveyors who are exposed to multiple risks and difficult situations, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Evidence generation needs to be ethical and essentially comprise the best practices to ensure the health and safety of the surveyors. While the ethics discourse mostly focuses on the rights of the human subject research participants, it is also important to emphasise and focus on the processes around ensuring the well-being of the field research staff engaged in data collection. In this descriptive study, we systematically document some of the key health and safety challenges of surveyors during primary data collection in India. Identified challenges, some of which disproportionately affected female surveyors, included the risk of physical illness, anxiety due to productivity targets, the risk of harassment and limiting hygiene practices. Based on these findings, we propose some best practices around institutional and context-specific measures that can be adopted to mitigate the challenges. Through this, we aim to help strengthen the ethical practices in research, further promoting the rigour and credibility of evidence generated towards sustainable development.