Data informs policy. Better policy needs better tools to procure and manage data. Consider the recent case of women in Andhra Pradesh under-reporting sterilisation, as was found out by researchers from the International Institute of Population Sciences in Mumbai. "When asked about their use of family planning methods, the women perceived that it only meant methods such as using oral contraceptives and intrauterine devices, and not sterilisation. We then went back to the village and told the investigators that they needed to make the women understand what family planning meant," said Professor K.S. James, director, IIPS, while reflecting on the issues that have cropped up during the collection of data for the National Family Health Survey. James also pointed out other issues in collecting data—for instance, parents tend to be unable to recall the number of vaccines that their children have been given.
To better collect, manage and analyse data, the Indian Council of Medical Research - National Institute for Medical Statistics (ICMR-NIMS) has launched the National Data Quality Forum, that will integrate learnings from scientific and evidence-based initiatives and guide actions through periodic workshops and conferences. Its activities will gear towards establishing protocols, and good practices when dealing with data collection, storage, use and dissemination that can be applied to health and demographic data and replicated across industries and sectors. Experts say that India has a wide variety of data on health and development indicators, such as the Sample Registration System, NFHS, and National Sample Survey Office, and sometimes, the numbers don't match with each other. For instance, the SRS (2016), and the NFHS (2015-16) report different sex ratios at birth and infant mortality rates, creating a dilemma for policy-makers. According to NSSO (2014), data that is generated at state level "lacks any information" on private sector where about 70 per cent of population seek treatment.
Better questionnaires that are designed keeping in mind the interviewees, innovative tools, and machine learning techniques to analyse large sets of data are needed to inform evidence-based policy making, say experts. "To improve our data collection and management, we will be working on a set of guidelines that will be ready by the end of this year, "said Dr M. Vishnu Vardhan Rao, director, ICMR-NIMS.
“Data is power. India has a wealth of information and we need to use this well. Routine data [Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY insurance scheme], for instance, needs to be critically examined and standardised. We need an integrated data platform to ensure the availability of high-quality reliable and timely data. The WHO is committed to supporting the Union health ministry in strengthening digital technology through initiatives such as Integrated Health Information Platform," said Dr Henk Bekedam, the WHO representative to India.
Dr Vinod K. Paul, member, Niti Aayog, said that the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY data would be available for academics and researchers "at some point in the future" since the scheme was still "evolving". Given the apprehensions around data privacy, Paul said that the government was aware of the concerns and would ensure that the citizens' rights were protected.
