In a country as big as India, data on utilisation of various schemes is very important. Governments – both central and state – make a number of schemes targeting specific populations, and then make various claims to talk about the success of these schemes. And, that is where the data assumes a lot of importance, as it is data only which helps understand the ‘success’ of these interventions worth crores of taxpayer’s money.
However data in India is facing assaults of various kinds – be it the one emanating from international agencies or the ones made by Indian ones. One such recent example was the institute – International Institute of Population Sciences — which prepares the Nation Family Health Surveys (NFHSs). In July this year, Union health ministry suspended the head of IIPS, K S James, as it found certain ‘complaints’ against him, ‘prima facie’, true. The government said it wanted to investigate those charges and hence his suspension pending inquiry was necessary. On October 11, his suspension was revoked. He was reinstated as IIPS director, and then his resignation, that he had tendered on August 8, was accepted. And all of this happened in a span of one hour on the same day. What happened between July and October, and did anything come out in the inquiry? To know this, and more, watch this video.
It may be noted that NFHS-5 had showed that the prevalence of anaemia had gone up despite several schemes, that India was nowhere close to being open defecation free and that more than half the rural women did not have access to a cylinder despite a scheme dedicated for this purpose.