The poor quality of official socio-economic statistics relating to the rural tropical world: with special reference to South India
Hill, P.G.
Modern Asian Studies 18(3): 491-514
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0026-749X DOI: 10.2307/312264Document Number: 426033
This article is a radical re-writing of a paper given to a seminar at the World Bank in Washington in May 1982. It is mainly concerned with statistics relating to such basic matters as size of farm holdings, output and yield of crops, household income and expenditure, occupational statistics, cattle ownership, size of villages, etc. Although most of the author's fieldwork has been undertaken in West Africa since 1953, most of the examples of bad statistics are taken from south India, since West African statistics, which were never abundant, are now scantier than ever. The main reason for the extremely poor quality of so many socioeconomic statistics relating to the rural tropical world is considered to be the general failure to realize the degree to which statistical procedures are based on conditions peculiar to advanced countries. Examining the ideologies and practicalities that account for this state of affairs, no distinction is made between the statistics issued by specialized agencies of the UN and those emanating directly from individual countries, since the member countries are held to be as much tainted by "statistical colonialism" (an inability to move with the times) as are the specialized agencies.