The systematic attempt to obscure through the lack of data, means that the Indian people are not being fully informed, warned an editorial titled “India’s elections: why data and transparency matter,’’ in the latest issue of the medical journal The Lancet, published online, which wrote that the lack of health data transparency is a major obstacle that India faces.
Alongside this, the declining government spending on health, delay in conducting the 2021 census and the Sample Registration System survey report for 2021 and not releasing in the public domain completed poverty surveys, have also been highlighted as shortcoming in the health care ecosystem of the country.
The Union Health Ministry hasn’t responded to the claims made in the editorial.
The editorial commentary published ahead of the country going into polls soon states that a major obstacle that India faces, which many Indians might be unaware of, relates to health data and a lack of data transparency.
The editorial states that the 2021 census was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the first time in 150 years, a whole decade has gone by with no official comprehensive data on India or its people.
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It added that no reason has been given for why the Sample Registration System survey report for 2021, which is India’s most reliable source of data on births and deaths, is delayed, or for why completed poverty surveys are not in the public domain.
Cautioning that without access to recent and reliable data, democratic choices are impoverished, it said that accurate and up-to-date data are essential for health policy, planning, and management, but the collection and publication of such data in India have undergone serious setbacks and impediments.
Going back to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lancet said that another contentious issue is the lack of credibility of India’s continuing claim that only 0·48 million people died as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other estimates are six to eight times larger (including excess deaths, most of which will be due to COVID-19).
“The unpublished 2021 Civil Registration report would help to either confirm or refute the Government’s estimate. Publication of results from the latest Sample Registration System survey and the Million Death Study could address the major questions around changes in mortality during 2020–21,’’ it said while adding that this would also provide updated evidence on potentially good news, such as ongoing declines in cancer, suicide, and child mortality. “Sadly, these studies are likely to be released only after the elections, if at all. Why is the Government so afraid of showing the real state of health? And more importantly, how does the Government intend to measure progress when there is no data?”, it asks.
Highlighting the forced resignation of the Director of the Institution for Population Sciences, K.S. James, who led the National Family Health Survey—one of India’s most robust data sources the editorial said: “A promise that the next census will be an electronic survey carried out in 2024 is yet to be fulfilled. The census is also the basis for all national and state-level health surveys. For example, the periodic measurement of morbidity and out-of-pocket expenditure by the National Sample Survey Organization is overdue, and there are no plans to conduct it.’’
Advocating that India must focus and invest in health and education, the editorial said that this can only be done with far more robust and open data. “It is in everyone’s interest and should not be politicised. It would be appropriate for India to aspire to lead with data and be unafraid of its uses,’’ it said.
