India's population, poverty and consumption data are missing, experts say political manipulation
India's population, poverty and consumption data are missing, experts say political manipulation
India’s government data landscape is critically compromised by significant delays, political manipulation, and poor accessibility, undermining the foundation of evidence-based policymaking. Crucial datasets, including the census and poverty estimates, are years overdue, creating a ripple effect that distorts welfare planning, fund distribution, and electoral boundaries. This stagnation suggests that data is being treated as a political tool rather than a public resource, with authorities often suppressing or delaying releases to avoid scrutiny or manage inconvenient narratives. The reliability and usability of available data are equally concerning. Even when released, information is frequently trapped in non-machine-readable formats like scanned images, limiting its value for researchers and developers. Furthermore, contradictions between official health statistics and independent surveys reveal deep-seated quality issues, while recent incidents of data removal from public portals indicate an active effort to obscure negative trends. These practices erode trust in official statistics and hinder accountability. This situation is vital to the open data movement because it highlights how the absence of timely, accessible, and accurate data prevents public oversight and informed civic engagement. When governments withhold or distort statistics, it becomes impossible for citizens to hold institutions accountable or for civil society to advocate effectively for policy reforms. Strengthening data infrastructure and ensuring transparency are essential steps toward restoring public trust and enabling a truly informed democracy.
Source: scroll.inPublished on 2023-01-11