‘Mann’ Ki Baat Touches People’s Hearts: Modi’s Leadership, Emotional Connect Work; 73% Say 'India on Right Path'

A powerful and decisive leadership that speaks to establish an emotional connect with the audience is one of the reasons for the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat, which will reach 100 episodes on Sunday, according to a survey by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Rohtak released on Monday.

The Prime Minister has been credited by the population of the country as knowledgeable and having “sympathetic and empathetic” approach.

Direct engagement with the citizens and guidance is also cited as a reason for the trust the programme has established, according to the survey.

The programme has reached 100 crore people who are aware and have listened to it at least once.

THE FINDINGS

The findings of the study, commissioned by Prasar Bharati, were brought out in a press conference by Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO, Prasar Bharati and Dheeraj P Sharma, Director, IIM Rohtak.

Sharma, speaking about the findings, further said that 23 crore people tune in to the programme regularly, while another 41 crore constitute an occasional audience that has the scope of being converted into a regular audience.

The study has tried to gauge the impact Mann Ki Baat has had on the population over the 99 editions so far. It states that a majority of listeners have become aware of the government’s working and 73% are optimistic and feel the country is going to progress. A total of 58% of listeners have responded saying their living conditions have improved, while a similar number (59%) have reported increased trust in the government.

The general sentiment towards the government can be gauged from the fact that 63% people have said their approach to the government has become positive and 60% have shown interest in working for nation building, as per the survey.

The study distributes the audience across three platforms with 44.7% people tuning in to the programme on a TV, while 37.6% access it on a mobile device. Viewing the programme is favoured over listening to it, as 62% of the respondents between the age of 19 and 34 preferred watching it on a TV.

Hindi grabs a major chunk of listeners of Mann Ki Baat, with 65% audience preferring it over any other language, while English is at the second place with 18%.

THE SURVEY

Speaking about the profile of respondents, Sharma said that a total sample strength of 10,003 was polled for this study, of which 60% were men, while 40% were women. This population was spread over 68 occupations sectors with 64% being from the informal and self-employed sector, while students constituted 23% of the studied audience.

Sharma further said that data was collected from North, South, East, and West regions of India using snowball sampling with approximately 2,500 responses per zone, through a psychometrically purified survey instrument.

Dwivedi informed the audience that apart from 22 Indian languages and 29 dialects, Mann Ki Baat is broadcast in 11 foreign languages, excluding English, namely, French, Chinese, Indonesian, Tibetan, Burmese, Baluchi, Arabic, Pashtu, Persian, Dari and Swahili. He said the show is being broadcast by more than 500 broadcast centres of All India Radio.

Going into the thought process behind commissioning of the study, Dwivedi stated that from time to time there was a thought that there was a need for a well-rounded feedback. He further informed that while digital sentiment on Mann Ki Baat is readily available, the same is not in the case with traditional media due to certain limitations. With this perspective, the task of the survey was awarded to IIM-Rohtak on April 18, 2022.

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