Target Audience: Development practitioners who need to find and evaluate data sources for reports, proposals, and evidence-based programming
Prerequisites: Workshop 1 or basic data reading skills
Materials Needed: Internet access, sample datasets, government reports
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Question: What percentage of Indian women participate in the labor force?
Source A: WhatsApp forward - "Only 12% of Indian women work - shocking!"
Source B: News article - "Women's labor force participation drops to 16.5% in 2022"
Source C: PLFS 2022-23 - "Labour Force Participation Rate for women: 37%"
Source D: ILO modelled estimate (World Bank WDI) - "Female labor force participation (ages 15+), 2022: 29.3%"
Why the differences?
This is why source evaluation matters - the "same" statistic can vary dramatically based on methodology.
Use: Never for serious analysis
Use: With extreme caution, verify elsewhere
Use: Good for most purposes, check currency
Use: Gold standard for evidence-based work
| Quality Dimension | Key Questions | Red Flags |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Currency | How recent is this data? Is it still relevant? | Data >5 years old for rapidly changing topics |
| 2. Coverage | Who/what is included? What's excluded? | Unclear sample, convenience sampling |
| 3. Methodology | How was data collected? What methods used? | No methodology section, vague descriptions |
| 4. Sample Size | Is the sample large enough to be representative? | Very small samples, no confidence intervals |
| 5. Transparency | Are limitations acknowledged? Data available? | No access to raw data, missing details |
| 6. Independence | Who funded this? Any conflicts of interest? | Industry-funded studies, undisclosed conflicts |
| 7. Consistency | Do findings align with other credible sources? | Wildly different from established evidence |
| 8. Precision | Are uncertainty ranges provided? Margins of error? | Overly precise claims, no confidence intervals |
Your Task: Evaluate three data sources using the 8-point checklist
Rate Source A (1-5 scale) on each dimension:
Overall Assessment: Would you use this source? Why or why not?
Quick Assessment: How would Source B likely score compared to Source A? Discuss in pairs.
What: NSS, NSSO surveys, national accounts
Best For: Household consumption, employment, health
Frequency: Annual, quinquennial
Access: mospi.gov.in
What: Population and housing census
Best For: Demographics, literacy, housing
Frequency: Every 10 years until 2011; the next census has a reference date of 1 March 2027
Access: censusindia.gov.in
What: Learning outcomes, higher education
Best For: Education quality, enrollment trends
Frequency: ASER every two years since 2014; AISHE annual
Access: asercentre.org, aishe.gov.in
What: Health, nutrition, family welfare
Best For: Health outcomes, service delivery
Frequency: Every 3-5 years / Continuous
Access: dhsprogram.com, hmis.mohfw.gov.in
What: Crop production, prices, farmer income
Best For: Rural livelihoods, food security
Frequency: Annual, seasonal
Access: desagri.gov.in (Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture)
What: Financial inclusion, credit, SHG data
Best For: Economic indicators, banking
Frequency: Monthly, quarterly
Access: rbi.org.in, pmjdy.gov.in
Understanding Administrative Data Limitations:
A district collector reported that 95% of NREGA wages were paid within 15 days. But field visits found families still waiting months for payments. (MGNREGA was repealed from 1 July 2026 by the Viksit Bharat G RAM G Act, 2025; the lesson applies to any scheme's dashboard.) What is happening here? Each of the limitations above is a possible answer, and the only way to tell them apart is to check the dashboard against what people on the ground report.
International sources:
Research organisations:
Background: You're writing a report on "Digital Financial Inclusion in Rural India" for an international development agency. You need credible, recent data to support policy recommendations.
Research Questions to Answer:
For each question, identify:
Available Sources: NFHS-5, Financial Inclusion Insights Survey, RBI Annual Report, NABARD All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey, State-wise PMJDY data, Digital India reports
Source under Review (fictional report and publisher, hypothetical figures): "India Digital Payment Growth Report 2024" by Paisarekha Insights, an invented firm used only for this exercise
Key Claims:
Available Information:
Critical Assessment:
Scenario: You find conflicting statistics on women's bank account ownership:
Resolution Strategy:
The Data Literacy Mindset: Move from "What do the numbers say?" to "What story are the numbers telling, who's telling it, and what are they leaving out?"
Individual Task (7 minutes):
Create your go-to source list for your work area:
Quick Share (3 minutes): Exchange source recommendations with colleagues in similar fields
Before using any data, ask:
Treat every source with some scepticism. Ask who collected the data, how and why, and what might be missing, and check an important figure against more than one source before you rely on it.
Fact-Checking Organizations:
Data Quality Guides:
Indian Government Data Portals:
Next Steps in ImpactMojo:
This handout is part of the ImpactMojo 101 Knowledge Series
Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 • Free to use with attribution • www.impactmojo.in
For source evaluation checklists, data portal guides, and quality assessment templates, visit the ImpactMojo platform.
