Working at a broking firm in an economics research team taught me where to gather the economic and financial data from and how to interpret and present them before clients. Getting data on India’s economy is always challenging as only a few data points are available in a user-friendly format (i.e. in spreadsheet format). However, barring a few, we do not rely much on official sources for downloading. Thanks to super friendly (but expensive) databases such as Bloomberg, CMIE and CEIC for making downloading and maintaining huge databases a simpler job. I can’t imagine punching data from PDFs to spreadsheets and then analysing them all by myself. But data requirements of a broking firm are very different from an NGO or an activist or even a layperson.

Understanding a variety of aspects (health, education, lifestyle, etc.) of India through its data, and that too via its official sources, is a mammoth task and one needs to delve deep to make sense of them. Some data are updated regularly, some aren’t; some are released and then withdrawn, some are never released; some are hidden, some get leaked; some are revised often, some are never updated; some comparable with the previous period, some aren’t; some are in spreadsheet format, some in PDFs (sometimes even scanned copies are uploaded). Most datasets are not easily understood. Knowing nuances and complications is important. Economists, domain experts and journalists are at the forefront of communicating data to a wider audience. Experts tend to complicate it by using jargon and esoteric language while journalists report half-baked or manipulated or incorrect data, intentionally or unintentionally, which obfuscates the essence. Rukmini S., one of the pioneers of data journalism in India, has solved this problem for now in her page-turning book Whole Numbers and Half Truths – What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India.

She combines data and stories to create a data-cum-story book for anyone who wants to understand how India lives, eats, loves, votes, earns, spends, works, so on and so forth.

It is not an academic type of book with numbers and boring commentary. It contains deep-rooted arguments, data, real-life incidents and charts. Plus, she narrates incidents with passion and empathy making us curious about everything.

She highlights how relying on police records (FIRs, crime rates, etc.) can be tricky as not-reporting crimes is a common practice in the country. She analyses what type of crime gets unreported the most and how reporting more crimes is actually a good thing. The book sheds light on voting patterns across religion, caste, gender and regions. She writes extensively about how Indian voters are polarised and smart at the same time.

The book contains interesting facts such as – 1. Average rural Bihari consumes over 10x more wheat a month compared to an average rural Tamil person. 2. Women spend 84% of the time on unpaid activities, while men spend 80% of the time on paid activities. 3. 41% of women had no say in the marriage and just 18% knew their husbands before marriage. 4. India’s minimum wages are among the lowest in the world, except for some sub-Saharan African nations.

There are many eye-opening or myth-busting facts such as – 1. The majority of Indians are non-vegetarians. 2. Most of us count ourselves as middle class, but it is likely that we aren’t. As per a survey in 2014, over half the rich population and over 40% of the poor self-identify as middle class. 3. Gap between the Muslim fertility rate and the Hindu fertility rate is narrowing as Muslim fertility is falling faster than Hindu fertility. The fertility rate of Muslims in southern states is lower than that of Hindus in the Gangetic belt and high Muslim fertility is only a problem in states with high levels of fertility for all women.

Almost in every theme, we can see how our lifestyle and ideas change depending on our place of residence, gender, caste, income levels and religion. This warrants strengthening of social fabric, institutions and democracy so as to maintain law and order as well as uplift people from abject poverty. However, in recent years, we are turning less democratic. She highlights a survey result where they found that as levels of education rose, people are more likely to support restrictions on free speech. Pew Survey corroborates this observation which showed more Indians preferred government censorship in 2019 compared to 2015 levels.

The book contains such data points that help us understand our country better and also provide intellectual fodder to introspect our own beliefs and ideas about India. The book is a must-read for mainstream media journalists and students of WhatsApp University.

She recites one of her struggles with accessing the National Health Mission’s Health Management Information System (NHM-HMIS) database. This database tracks the utilisation of health services from over 20000 health facilities across the country. In the early months of the 2020 lockdown, she reported on severe curtailment in health services in March 2020 compared to previous months and years. Post this report, the NHM stopped publishing the data for a few months. Then in August 2020, data for April to June was published. Once again, she wrote about it and then the data went offline citing ‘server problems’. Such issues raise more suspicion and impact the credibility of Indian statistics at a global level.

She laments that official data are no more transparent and trustworthy enough compared to the golden years of Indian statistics. Recent goof-ups with statistical data and large scale fake news/misinformation campaigns by the ruling party highlight the importance of impartial and transparent statistical systems.

If the government wants us to believe the rosy picture of Swachh Bharat or rural electrification, then it has to believe its own statistical body which publishes (or wants to publish) the data of GDP slowdown or fall in consumption. The government cannot deny or dismiss such results. Even in case of any disagreement, it must still publish it, then create an open platform for all to access the raw data and get feedback from other experts. Such an approach has been followed earlier and has helped us strengthen our systems.

It is pitiable that conversations have now been broken down between India’s Left and Right. But she is confident that data can become a bridge between them. She argues that more data, better collection, greater openness and more interrogation will fix the problem of lack of conversation. **She writes, *“Everyone should hear the stories numbers tell, and then make up their own minds about the country”*

In the journey to weed truth out from data, the book reflects her painstaking efforts.

Many readers might criticise her for being biased and anti-Modi/BJP. However, she clears her stance in the last chapter that she is open to discussing with people of varying opinions but cannot stand with those who do not consider other religions and castes equal. She has criticised political parties across the board and does not want us to engage in such politics. She wants everyone to start conversations and her work provides great material to start with.

So let us open the book and be ready for conversation.

-Swapnil Karkare

P. S.: I would request her to keep updating this book every two to three years.

Know more about the author:

Rukmini S is an independent data journalist based in Chennai.

Book link – Amazon, Flipkart, Odyssey

Her blog The Moving Curve has won an Emerging Ventures India Covid-19 Prize in 2020.

Her articles:  HuffPost, Hindu, Scroll, Mint, Times of India (1,2) and India Spend.

Amit Varma interviews her in Episode 196 and Episode 261 of The Seen and The Unseen podcast.