Delays in the release of India’s census data

Abstract

The timeliness dimension of data quality has not received sufficient scholarly attention even though the publication of official statistics of various countries are often delayed. This paper examines the growing delays in the release of census data in India amidst the technocratisation of policy-making, public professions of faith in evidence based policy-making and growing fascination with big data. We show that the growing delay in the release of census data of India is a fact, rather than a mere allegation, and contextualise the problem by comparing seven decennial censuses conducted between 1951 and 2011. We suggest that delays can be measured vis-à-vis usual, desirable, declared and feasible schedules of publication. Further, delays can be understood from the perspectives of the unwillingness of the government statistical system to face public scrutiny, decline in the quality of public goods, political interference and, in case of data on identity, communalisation of politics.

Global age-sex-specific mortality, life expectancy, and population estimates in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1950–2021, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

“…Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted many data collection efforts, such as the USAID Demographic and Health Surveys Program, 27 and national censuses, which are now resuming. 28 Impacts such as these must be resolved to improve future data availability.…”

Reviewing Assessment Tools for Measuring Country Statistical Capacity

“…Alternatively, policymakers and politicians may fear public or timely data dissemination for a variety of reasons, such as more accountability, increased public scrutiny (e.g., the data may present a simplistic perspective that does not do full credit to the complex policy-making process) or potential loss of immediate public support (e.g., policies may take more time than expected to work) (Taylor, 2016;Dargent et al, 2018;Agrawal and Kumar, 2020) or not being able to secure more loans (Coyle, 2015). Similarly, for sustainable solutions, improving statistical capacity may not just include setting things right in the short term, but may also require more nuanced thinking about the varying degrees that official economic indicators can be manipulated in specific contexts, and how solutions can be tailor-made to address these challenges on a long-term basis.…”