Satyameva Jayate…lies and statistics
lies, lies and statistics…
As a rule, I do not watch television, but last week i watched the first 5-7 minutes of Satyameva Jayate – Aamir Khan’s new serial on Hero vs. Villain.
When I say Hero vs Villain I mean AK’s one sided show which has a HERO (AK) (whom you HAVE to support because even in your wildest dreams YOU cannot support the OTHER SIDE!!
This meant that AK had to create as a great an impact as possible.
So he started by saying “According to the statistics available with the government ….out of 100 people in the casualty ward of a hospital….40% are victims of domestic abuse…and according to another private research…the figure is 84%….Now let us not accept both, let us take the average as 60%….or let us say :
50% of the women in INDIA are victims of domestic abuse.
Awesome misuse of statistics, Mr. Aamir Khan. Congrats. Which means if I know 100 women, 50 are victims of domestic abuse.
From the casualty ward of a hospital as the reference base to the whole of India is a dramatic change…..did anybody else notice this?
Raghav
Subra Sir, This % is only of the people in the casualty ward of a hospital. Not general public.. If you know 100 people in the casualty ward of a hospital, yes – Could be 50 of them are victims 🙁
Mira D
I’ve stopped watching him after he took on my sector, pharmaceuticals. The man is a TRP chaser and ignorant.
But if you repeat the same lies with conviction, how many will ask questions?
Let him first treat his immediate family with cheap generics from a garage manufacturer and then poke holes into the Indian industry.
Perhaps Mr Khan’s 50% includes his own domestic experience.
Himanshu
I would just related the statistic to the 15% commitment on ULIPS that i usually hear from the Insurance agent. What is more important is whether it happens ? Answer is yes and in a large number. Is it not enough to accept this has a drawback in our society?
Anshuk Jain
Nope. I missed it completely.. good catch.
Agarwal
If you had paid attention, he said the private research shows 84% of women experience “some form” of domestic abuse. Not all of it is physical.
Anyway, its not like the cause is validated only if the abuse % > 50, is it? I wished you had watched further and seen those men openly admitting to abusing their wives for crappy reasons. Such a shame for the whole society.
I have started reading your blog very recently, and I suggest you stick to finance and let aamir do any good he can. In my mind, even if he is using wrong stats, and that causes even 10 men to stop abusing, it’s totally worth it. By posting the blogs like these, you are only supporting the abusers. Please stick to your domain!
PR
‘If Aamir uses WRONG stats it is ok, as long as he can stop 10 men from abusing’ is brilliant Agarwal!
I think you should stick to your domain of abuse and Khans.
If you do not understand statistics you should not comment. Importantly pointing out MISTAKES (blunders) in Aamir khan’s program does not make one an abuser!! have fun…u will find more such comments / posts..
wealthucreate
i am neither supporting nor against this. Data is shown the way people want to see it sir. Have you ever seen Business school showcasing thier ranking.
XXX business school – No 1 as per ABC Magzine.
OOO Business school – In Top 10 list of best upcomming colleges.
Every college attempts to claim they are in top 10.
Now in AK’s case, when the scene is about ward, 50% is assumed in refrence to ward.
subra
i am not saying how i understood it, I am saying how HE said it.
Raja
I like the show. Unequivocally if i can add.
Not because it gives me statistically accurate data. On statistics it may be no different than financial service sector where ppl tell lies with equally straight face if not more 😉 like they tell 20 year olds have high risk profile and 40 year olds have less risk profile.
I like the show because it’s an attempt to show us a mirror on our shortcomings as a society.
Does everything shown in the show happens with every child/wife/doctor/patient… ? Of course not. But they are about the major disturbing trends of our society. It’s very similar to when Subramoney talks about major disturbing trends in personal finance of today’s middle income group or youngsters. It’s dig!! without claiming to be accurate on statistics.
But we Indian’s being Indian’s are very sensitive when our shortcomings are pointed out. We as a nation are only comfortable when we are told that we the next emerging super power. Not when we are point out the amount of grains rotting and number of people going foodless. In that we case we want to know exact statistical data on how many bags were wasted how many ppl in the some village of Odisha died of hunger. In case of little mismatch of data we are eager to discard the trend on ground of lack of statistical data.
Too obsessed with data when that’s not the point and very little concerned about data when that’s the only thing that matter’s like in financial decisions.
Jai Ho !!
Regards
Raja
Suresh
Subra, you are perhaps expecting an ordinary viewer to follow Daniel Kahnemann. Tough, considering even experts commit statistical errors. As for movie stars – all one can say with any confidence about them is that a majority of one person benefits assuredly in any given programme.
Sanjay
Mira D : ‘Let him first treat his immediate family with cheap generics from a garage manufacturer.’
Do you mean generic manufacturer has no quality control and/or no regulatory approval needed to create generics?
Can generics be bad than branded drug?
All the blog readers are well educated. You can certainly put a point forward.
I had always thought that generics vs branded are just plain white and black problem. There is no gray shade in it.
Praveen
Forgetting the bigger picture and concentrating on smaller follies. When Baba Ramdev/Anna Hazare fights for bringing back black money, punishing corrupt people, govt works overtime to digg out older cases against such people, and deviate the entire discussion. Even the same thing is happening here. We are too much obsessed with how statistics provided by AK are wrong, forgetting if these issues are relevant or not.
Sincere advice to Subra, u can publish one article less, but just because u r not finding any article, no need to publish irrevelant things
Sanjay Singhaniya
@Praveen,
If you look at the post on stand alone basis, it teaches a lot on how to read information.
Subra Sir has not been harsh on AK. Subra Sir just stated a fact. In fact if same information would have been provided to me, I couldn’t have caught error at first read.
What I am wondering is when I have a textual medium (which give time to reanalyse) and still can not catch an error then how much I am capable of when I am audience of video medium. Mind you, audience of video medium has no time to analyze content. It simply agrees to what is being stated. Sometimes the audience is under emotional influence as well.
Sukumar
Clearly Praveen reading subra’s blog is a challenge for many people including You. This is NOT against AK..frankly to Subra it should not matter whether Ak gets trp. This is clearly a post on UNDERSTANDING data. Innumerate is how one would have to describe you. Nothing wrong but just necessary for you to acknowledge that understanding nos. is a challenge for you.
Sukumar
Praveen
Innumeracy means a person who does not understand maths or stats. To be a good actor u need not understand maths or stats. Also this post is about data interpretation – statistics 101. Having said that AK has misused stats is fine, it does not take away that abusing women is WRONG. Please read the post, it is a statistics post, NOT a review of ak’s program.
gopal
Can any one here explain me the exact meaning of domestic abuse.
are you people here think only women beaten up then hospitalizing is called domestic abuse.
Let me correct you people. as far as my knowledge goes it is anything which has to do with humiliating, treated bad whether it is physically or mentally for which most of the time hospitalization is not required.
Eg: your mother does so much of work from morning till night since your childhood to to till she dies. Don’t you through tantrums at her that some times salt is less in food r some thing is burnt you don’t want to eat it r neglect her health r demand money/things. these things really might not sound domestic violence but over time these small things builds up and then she becomes a victim of domestic violence. If this is really domestic violence then MR.AK’s statistics are true.
Praveen
@Sukumar, Even I dont care whether AK’s program gets TRP or not. If this article is about understanding statistics then it used very bad example. There are lot of other instances where, misselling is happening based on stats. I am voicing my opinion on not just based on one post against Satyameva jayate, but recurring articles on regular basis. U can check previous posts if you wish. We need to appreciate the intent of a program and not micro analyse and point out mistakes.
I fully agree with @Agarwal when he says- ‘If Aamir uses WRONG stats it is ok, as long as he can stop 10 men from abusing’.
BTW, yeah, reading subra’s blog is a challenge for lesser intellectuals like me. Need more guidance to understand it from few blessed geniuses.
Mira D
Sanjay: No, they don’t. And I will go by my twenty three years of industry experience when I say that. To get and KEEP an USFDA approval, to run air handling systems with HEPA filters and forced air changes, to clean and inspect and control machines between product changeovers takes MONEY and it takes MONEY to employ QC staff that is not intimidated by management, and can say NO. This is for tablets– let me not even BEGIN for injectables.
HAS this genius even compared ONE generic tablet versus a brand for basic tests — assay, friabllity, dissolution profile– before shooting off his great DIAGNOSIS?
subra reader
I hate to say this but Subra are you writing about Satyameva Jayate only so that you get some traffic from web searches related to this program?
Anyway watching a program for 5-10 mins and then writing 3-4 blogs articles using it’s name is unjustified.