SPECIAL ARTICLE
Economic & Political
Weekly
EPW
February 15, 2014 vol xlix no 7
43
This paper relies heavily on background notes prepared by the author
for the National Statistical Commission's Committee on Unorganised
Sector Statistics, and on documents supplied by offi
cials, especially
those of the Central Statistics Offi
ce and NSSO. Without their
contributions this paper could never have taken shape. For the use made
of these inputs here the author is solely responsible.
Sheila Bhalla (
bhallasheila@gmail.com
) is at the Institute for Human
Development, New Delhi.
Behind the Post-1991 ‘Challenge’ to the Functional
Efficiency of Established Statistical Institutions
Sheila Bhalla
This paper provides a documented account of what
drove the post-1991 statistical policy shifts which
contributed so much to what the
Report of the
Committee on Unorganised Sector Statistics
(2012)
describes as the “challenges” of ensuring the quality and
credibility of India’s statistical database. The initial focus
is on the ideology and actions which lay behind the
functionally destructive institutional restructuring of
two established Indian statistical organisations – the
Field Operations Division of the National Sample Survey
Organisation and the Economic Census. An account of
the consequences follows.