Why does the Government of India put out so many different statistical publications with uninformative names and overlapping information?! And why is none of them consistent over time in terms of what it contains?! I sound grumpy, but it’s actually been an entertaining (if exhausting!) detective chase for me over the last year or so, trying to put together a comprehensive database on occupational injuries in India over the last five decades.
Over the course of my quest, I have made a few schleps to the Bodleian library, the LSE library and the British Library, but what has really been a life-saver for me is Sussex’s BLDS collection which has somehow managed to squirrel away some of the most obscure government reports (Statistics of Factories!!!).
It’s also been an iterative process: I’ll usually think of some particular piece of data that I need and then go out to collect it, but then once I’m back at my desk with my thinking cap on, I’ll realize that I need something more besides, and then I’m back at the Sussex library the next day bugging Danny and Julie to drag some more volumes out of the collection for me. I am so glad for their good humor.
I think I can see the finish line now (famous last words!), but when (if!) it’s over, I’ll miss the thrill of opening up an ancient volume that no one has ever looked at before, and leafing through it, holding my breath and not daring to hope……
This post was kindly written for us by by Amalavoyal Chari, Professor in Economics at the University of Sussex.
The British Library for Development Studies Legacy Collection 