Modi Govt Suspends IIPS Director as Data Contradictions Rise: Report

Delhi: The Union government has taken an unprecedented step by suspending K S James, the director of the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), citing irregularities in recruitment, The Wire reported citing sources.

Operating under the Union Health Ministry, the IIPS is responsible for preparing the National Family Health Surveys and conducting other significant exercises on behalf of the government. 

A source at the Department of Public Health and Mortality Studies within IIPS confirmed to The Wire that a suspension letter has been issued to James, with further details expected on Monday. The letter was sent on the evening of July 28, 2023.

According to the news report, the government had previously requested James to resign due to dissatisfaction with certain data sets from IIPS surveys. However, he was reluctant to step down for reasons not known.

Appointed as the director of the Mumbai-based institute in 2018, James brought an impressive academic background to the role. With a postdoctoral degree from the Harvard Centre for Population and Development, he previously served as a professor of population studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He also held various leadership positions before joining IIPS.

It is important to note that the NFHS-5 revealed several data sets inconvenient for the government. The survey starkly contradicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s declaration of India being “open-defecation free” on October 2, 2019. Government representatives and BJP leaders often repeat the same claim. The NFHS-5 data shows that 19% of households in the country still practice open defecation.

Further, states like Odisha, Jharkhand, and Bihar have over 30% of their populations without access to toilets. In rural areas, the situation is even worse, with Bihar having only slightly more than 50% of its rural population with access to toilets.

In yet another instance, the Union government’s ‘Poshan Abhiyan’, started in 2018 with the aim of improving nutritional indicators, also showed poor performance as per the NFHS-5.

One of the policy’s primary objectives was to reduce the prevalence of anaemia in children and adolescent girls by 3 percentage points annually. However, according to the survey conducted between 2019 and 2021, the prevalence of anaemia in children has increased compared to the NFHS-4 period (2015-16). 

The Narendra Modi-led government’s tumultuous relationship with data has been widely reported, marked by controversial incidents and withheld information.

During its first term, the government faced criticism and scepticism when it discarded its own Consumption Expenditure Survey, inviting raised eyebrows.

The situation escalated when the government chose to withhold unemployment data in January 2019, conveniently releasing it after the general elections. 

This move resulted in the resignation of several members of the National Statistical Commission, including P.C. Mohanan, the acting chairman of the apex statistical body.

Adding to the data-related challenges, the decadal Census, originally slated for 2021, has been delayed by the government, marking the first time in 150 years that such a postponement has occurred.

The government’s handling of data has left many questioning its transparency and commitment to accurate information, raising concerns about the impact on policymaking and public trust in official statistics.