How has India fared in making Covid-19 data available?

Data has shaped policy decisions across the world. But India’s relationship with data has been complicated. Even so, the Covid-19 pandemic has proved a big step-up for many governments usually reticent about releasing public information.

Today, the central and state govts share data on cases, deaths and tests. But information gaps still exist. And accessibility is still an arduous task. 

Some good private initiatives that came up during the early stage of the pandemic helped researchers and journalists report on the Covid-19 situation in the country.

But with some of them like covid19india.org discontinuing their service, dependence on state and central governments for data access has increased.

Our analysis found that only 22 of India’s 35 states and Union Territories had made a digital dashboard on Covid-19 information.

Five did not have updated dashboards. And one, Puducherry, updated it with a lag of seven days.

While almost all states – 32 of the 35 to be precise – posted their daily Covid-19 bulletin on social media, not everybody provided all information. 

Only 13 states provided complete information on the kind of Covid-19 tests they conducted. And most did not categorise RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests separately. 

The central government has made case positivity, or the number of Covid-19 cases as a proportion of total tests conducted, a parameter to assess severity of Covid-19 in a district. But only 10 states provided data on district-wise tests for Covid-19, which is instrumental in estimating case positivity across districts.

On the 11 criteria for easy data access, not even one state got a perfect score. Only seven of the 35 states and UTs satisfied 10 of the 11 criteria. Only two could deliver data on nine. And 12 states met fewer than seven criteria.

The worst performers in data mismanagement have been some of the country’s largest states by population. Even those that have scored well on our data access index have had myriad issues.

Punjab, for instance, did not put its medical bulletin on its Covid-19 website for almost a week. Jharkhand, owing to a strike, did not update the dashboard.

Data for Bihar is available only in Hindi. Andhra Pradesh, which satisfied seven of the 11 listed criteria, has been releasing its medical bulletin in Telugu.

Another interesting aspect is that states which are reluctant to publish data are also the ones which are testing less. For example, there is Uttar Pradesh, which satisfied only two of the 11 criteria. There is Bihar, which satisfied five, and Madhya Pradesh, which satisfied just four. All of them also have some of the lowest testing ratios.

Are only states to blame for difficulty in data access? The central government hasn’t been helpful either. It does provide data on cases, deaths and recoveries. But, despite getting information from states, it does not give data on state-wise or district-wise tests.

Besides, the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare does not let users access historical data on Covid-19 in the country. 

Clearly, governments still need to do a lot to be more transparent and forthcoming with data.