Comparison of 2 and 3 year citizen evaluation of Central Government Performance

17 May, 2017, New Delhi: : India is the world’s biggest democracy and one of the core benefits of democracy is citizen’s feedback to the government. This has to be fair, transparent and regular. LocalCircles’ objective is to make governance better and participative for common citizens. Hence, every year it asks millions of citizens registered on the platform to weigh in on the performance of the central government.

The comparison of this year’s review with second year shows a marginal decline. Around 44% citizens this year said that government met their expectations; this is marginally down from 46% last year. Dissatisfaction has also risen – last year only 36% citizens said the performance of the government was below expectation. This has gone up to 39% in the third year. While last year 18% said that the government had exceeded their expectations, this year 17% say that. Overall, as change hasn’t come fast enough for most people, there is a decline in citizens rating of the government in most areas as compared to last year. Still, 59% of the citizens who polled believe that the government will fulfil the promises made in its pre-election manifesto, which is a fairly high trust factor.

Essential Commodities: Around 66% of the citizens believe that the price of essential commodities have gone up, this is in spite of the fact that inflation has come down to 3%. Only 28% of the citizens believe that the prices of essential commodities have come down for them. This is much lower than 38% citizens last year. This means there is difference between citizens’ perception and official inflation data.

Women Safety:While police is not a central government subject, perception about safety is always linked to central government. 60% citizens believe that crime against women and children have not come down, which is up from 38% last year, a substantial rise.

Future in India: Indians, approximately 69%, remain optimistic about their family’s future in the country, though this percentage has come down from 76% last year.

Swachh Bharat Mission: Though Swachh Survekshan 2017, released recently reported that 75-80% citizens find their cities cleaner, when asked whether their city had become cleaner in the last 3 years due to Swachh Bharat Mission, only 35% agreed with it. This is a sharp decrease from the 61% last year.

Infrastructure Development: The number of citizens who felt that there has been a growth in infrastructure development as a result of the NDA has reduced from 72% last year to 65% this year. Citizens were asked if they felt that doing business had become easier in the last 3 years on which votes were divided. 36% citizens said yes, while 36% said no and 28% were not sure. This perception has changed from last year when 60% said that doing business had become easier.

Corruption: The general perception among 47% citizens is that corruption has reduced in the last 3 years. Same poll last year showed 61% citizens believing corruption has reduced, pointing towards a 14% perception drop year-over-year.

Doing Business:Making doing business easy in India was another major initiative of the NDA government. Although there was much promise on the subject from the government, the on-ground execution was not up to the mark. Citizens are divided on this crucial issue and the ones who felt it had actually happened were 60% last year. This year’s numbers have decreased sharply and are at 36%.

Unemployment Rate: In last year’s poll, 43% people said that the unemployment rate had not reduced in India under the leadership of the NDA Government. This year, this number has jumped up to 63%. There has been spate of layoffs in the e-commerce and IT sector this year, which were absent last year. New jobs are not being created leading to limited career opportunities and earnings growth for most professionals.

India’s Image and Influence: 81% citizen feel that India’s image and influence in the world has improved under the leadership of the current government in the last 3 years. Last year 90% citizens believed that India’s image and influence in the world has improved though this number has come down, it is still a massive reaffirmation.

MP’s Connection with the Constituency:Government might have done well in some areas, but individual MPs still remain disconnected with their constituencies. Around 69% of the citizens who polled say that their local MP is not engaged with the constituency. This is an increase from last year, where the number stood at 66%.

The Pakistan Issue: Government has been able to handle the Pakistan issue well with the highest rating improvement coming in here, majorly due to the surgical strike conducted by the Indian army. 64% of the citizens this year say the government has effectively handled Pakistan, as opposed to just 34% who said the same last year.

Terrorism: Terrorism has been a huge issue in India for the last few decades. The current Government has taken some tough stance on terrorism in the last couple of years. People were asked if they felt that acts of terrorism and related activities have reduced in the last 3 years. In last year’s poll, 72% citizens believed that terrorism in India had reduced under the leadership of the NDA Government in the 2 year poll. The number slid down to 51% in this year’s poll.

Communalism: The question on communalism showed almost similar responses in the 2nd and 3rd year’s poll. Last year 63% citizens felt that communalism related issues were handled well by the NDA government. This number stood at 61% in this year’s poll.

1. Government Performance

The comparison of the 3 year performance with 2 year performance according to citizens shows a slight decline. In 2016, the percentage of citizens who said that the NDA Government met or exceeded their expectations was 64% which has declined to 61%.

2. Essential Commodities

As compared to 28% this year, last year 38% citizens had said that the prices of essential commodities and cost of living has come down under the NDA government.

3. Crime against Women and Children

Last year’s poll showed that 38% people felt that crime against women and children have reduced under the current government. This number has declined to 28% this year which points out to the growing citizen concern about women and child safety and lack of sustainable initiatives to address this.

4. Family’s Future

69% citizens this year feel optimistic about their and their family’s future in India as opposed to 76% last year. This shows a drop of 7% from last year.

5. Swachh Bharat

Government’s Swachh Bharat Mission was launched in 2014 and according to people lack of municipal engagement had led to only limited success on the ground. 67% citizens in last year’s poll felt that their city had become cleaner due to the Swachh Bharat Mission. This number has plummeted to 35% this year showing that the effect of the mission is wearing off. The reduced number also shows that the local municipal bodies have not engaged in the mission effectively.

6. Infrastructure Development

The number of citizens who felt that there has been a growth in infrastructure development as a result of the NDA government’s efforts has fallen from 72% last year to 65% this year.

7. Corruption

Corruption is one of the biggest pain point of the Indian economy with several big and small scams being unearthed every year. The number of people who believed corruption had reduced under NDA and stood at 61% last year, slid down to 47% this year.

8. Doing Business

Making doing business easy in India was another major initiative of the NDA government. Citizens are divided on this crucial issue and the ones who felt it had actually happened were 60% last year. This year’s numbers have decreased sharply and are at 36%.

9. Unemployment

Only 35% people in 2016 had said that unemployment had reduced under the NDA Government. In the 3 year poll, this number was 21% indicating that an increased percentage of citizens now believe that Government is unable to address unemployment.

10. India’s Image and Influence

As opposed to 81% who feel that India’s image and influence in the world has improved in the last 3 years, 90% felt the same last year when the government completed its 2 years.

11. MPs Engaging with Constituency

The number of citizens saying that their MPs do not engage with them stays poor. From a meagre 18% last year, it has gone down further to 14% this year. This clearly shows that MPs focus on addressing citizen issues is not quite there.

12. Handling of Pakistan

In the 2 year poll, only 34% citizens approved of the way India handled Pakistan. This number jumped almost 2-folds to 64% this year due to the strict measure taken by the government in the last 1 year.

13. Terrorism

Terrorism has been a huge issue in India for the last few decades. The current Government has taken some tough stance on terrorism in the last couple of years. 72% citizens believed that terrorism in India had reduced under the leadership of the NDA Government in the 2 year poll. The number slid down to 51% in this year’s poll.

14. Communalism

The question on communalism showed almost similar responses in the 2 and 3 years poll. 63% citizens last year felt that communalism related issues were handles well by the NDA government. This number stood at 61% in this year’s poll, a drop of 2%.

Survey Platform and Demographics

The national survey on three years of Central Government was conducted on LocalCircles, India’s leading citizen engagement platform to gauge the impact and performance of the Central Government. The objective was to understand what’s working and where efforts need to be put in going forward. Over 40,000 unique citizens participated in the polls and over 200,000 votes were received in the survey thereby making it one of its largest surveys of its kind. Each citizen who voted in thee survey is registered with LocalCircles with their detailed information and in many cases shared their exact residential address.

Approximately 68% of respondents were males while 32% were females. Approximately 42% of the respondents were from Tier 1 cities, 28% from Tier 2 cities and 30% from Tier 3 cities and rural locations. The average age of the poll participants was 32 years.