No offi��ce in this land is moreimportant than that of beinga citizen

— Felix Frankfurter

PRATEEK RAJ / TRILOCHAN SASTRY

The Association for Demo-cratic Reforms (ADR)commissioned one ofthe world’s largest voter

surveys of over 2.7 lakh adult Indi-ans in 534 Lok Sabha constituen-cies during October to December2018. This is the third round of theADR survey and its aim is to under-stand the key issues that Indianvoters care about. In this article wereview the voter feedback and shedlight on the central and surprisinginsights we learn.

India is the world’s largestdemocracy with exceptional di-versity. Yet, despite the size and di-versity, it is striking to learn thatIndian voters across gender, casteand age prioritise the same set ofuniversal issues that relate to a de-sire for better employment oppor-tunities, well-being and quality oflife.

Beyond these universal issues,we also learn that urban and ruralvoters have some distinct priorit-ies. While urban voters desire bet-ter governance and environment,rural voters prioritise several is-sues that relate to the agriculturesector.

Universal issuesA desire for better employment op-portunities, is the central issue thatIndian voters are most concernedabout universally, across demo-graphic groups and in almost allStates. As many as 47 per cent of allrespondents state it as a top fi��vegovernance priority, and the issueis especially more acute in urbanregions, where 52 per cent of all re-spondents state it as a top priority.The issue of employment oppor-tunity is a top three issue in 26 ofthe 28 States surveyed.

The second most acute and uni-versal issue for voters is the avail-ability of better hospitals andprimary healthcare centres, with 35

men and women giving similarpriority to the issue. Once again,we fi��nd that voters prioritise secur-ity issues like policing and securityof women that are of immediateand everyday relevance to them.

United in preferencesWhile voters state their prefer-ences in surveys, it does not implythat they vote strictly on the basisof these stated preferences. For ex-ample, an overwhelming majorityof respondents (98 per cent) saythat candidates with criminalbackground should not be in Par-liament or State Assembly, but asmany as 36 per cent of respond-ents say they are willing to vote fora candidate with a criminal recordif they have done good work in thepast.

In an election as large and di-verse as India’s, it is easy for politi-cians to attempt to exploit voterdiff��erences. Yet, an overwhelmingnarrative that emerges from theADR survey is that Indian voters,despite their geographic anddemographic diversity, are unitedin their preferences.

So what does the survey tell usabout what India wants? Indiawants better economic opportun-ities (employment), well-being(healthcare), quality of life (drink-ing water, road, and public trans-port) and security (police and wo-men empowerment).

Urban India also desires a bettercity life with environmentally con-scious urban governance (lesstraffi��c and pollution) and rural In-dia is looking for solutions thatwill fi��x the slump of growth thatthe agriculture sector in Indiafaces today (access to water andelectricity, availability of loan andsubsidies, higher pricerealisation).

Raj is an Assistant Professor ofStrategy and Sastry is a Professor ofDecision Sciences at IIM Bangalore.ADR (Association for DemocraticReforms) is a non-partisan, NGOwhich aims at bringing transparencyand accountability in Indian politics

isation. More broadly, these re-sponses suggest that rural votersare demanding more focussedpolicies that look at the economicsof agriculture as a whole (funding,inputs, pricing) and can improvethe fortunes of the slow growingagriculture sector in an otherwisefast-growing Indian economy.

Another primary sector — sandand stone quarrying/mining — wasalso a salient concern for ruralvoters with 21 per cent of rural re-spondents mentioning it as a topfi��ve governance issue.

The non-issuesThe most important governancepriorities for Indian voters relateto the economy, individual well-be-ing and the environment. Withthis insight, we also learn that “hotbutton” issues such as eradicationof corruption, reservation for jobsand education, lower food pricesfor consumers, strong defence/military and terrorism are a topfi��ve issue for a much smaller frac-tion of respondents.

While eradication of corruptionand reservation of jobs and educa-tion are still top fi��ve governance is-sue for 11 per cent and 10 per cent ofthe respondents respectively(slightly higher in urban areas at14 per cent and 12 per cent), issuessuch as lower food prices for cus-tomers (7 per cent), strong de-fence/military (4 per cent) and ter-rorism (4 per cent) do not emergeas important issues that voters re-gard as top fi��ve priorities for them.

More than strong defence or ter-rorism, it is better law and order/policing that is a major and univer-sal issue for voters. While 24 percent of all respondents state poli-cing as a top-fi��ve issue, inJharkhand, Rajasthan, Tripura andUttar Pradesh it emerges as a topthree issue.

The issue of law and order ismore acute in urban areas where29 per cent of all urban respond-ents state it as a top fi��ve priority.Similarly, 15 per cent of all respond-ents mention empowerment of wo-men and security as a top-fi��ve, with

electricity for agriculture is a top fi��veissue.

Thirty-nine per cent say agricul-tural loan availability is a top issuefor them, and the same fraction ofrural respondents report subsidiesfor seeds/fertiliser to be a top issue.These responses highlight thatavailability of and funding for in-puts of agriculture (water, electri-city, seed, fertilisers, loan/subsidy)remains a major concern for ruralvoters. Additionally, 39 per cent ofrural respondents say higher pricerealisation for farm products is a topfi��ve issue, highlighting that ruralvoters are not satisfi��ed with thecurrent mechanisms of price real-

has been facing one of the worst in-stances of urban pollution (cur-rently 22 of the most polluted 30cities in the world are in India).

Rural issuesRural voters make the majority ofthe Indian population, and theirspecifi��c issues rank among the topgovernance issues of India. Ruralvoters, like their urban counter-parts, have some distinct prioritiesand all relate to the economics ofagriculture. Forty-one per cent ofall rural respondents say availabil-ity of water for agriculture is a topfi��ve governance issue for them,and 37 per cent say availability of

issue. These traffi��c-related issues,coupled with the demand for bet-ter roads and public transport,highlight the importance of urbanplanning and governance in theseelections. Such a trend should notcome as a surprise, given the rapidpace of urban growth India hasseen over the last few decades.

Urban voters are also longing fora better environment. Thirty-fourper cent of urban respondentsstate water and air pollution to be atop fi��ve governance issue for them,while noise pollution followsclosely at 32 per cent, showcasingthe centrality of pollution as anelectoral issue at a time when India

per cent of all respondents (39 percent in urban areas) listing it as atop fi��ve governance priority. Inother words, Indian voters are notfocussing on the economy alone,and they want better healthcare fa-cilities, and more generally a bet-ter quality of life. Healthcare res-onates as a top governance issueacross all demographic groups,and is a top three issue in 18 of the28 States surveyed.

The third most important issuethat is universally prioritisedacross all demographic groups (30per cent of all respondents), andappears as the most importantgovernance issue in the States ofKarnataka and Odisha, is the avail-ability of drinking water. The issue ofdrinking water is followed by a de-mand for better roads and betterpublic transport (28 per cent and 27per cent of all respondents statethem as top fi��ve issues), which tooare universally prioritised byvoters across all demographicgroups.

Drinking water, better roads andpublic transport are all issues thatrelate to everyday quality of life ofvoters, and they are especiallyacute in urban areas where around35 per cent of all respondents re-port them as top fi��ve governancepriorities. Some other issues ofnote that voters especially inurban areas prioritise are availabil-ity of electricity for domestic use (25per cent of urban respondents and20 per cent of all respondents),and school education (20 per cent ofurban respondents and 16 per centof all respondents), both of whichalso directly relate to the quality oflife.

Urban issuesUrban voters prioritise a few issuesthat are unique to the urban set-ting, and they relate to a demandfor better urban governance andenvironment. Thirty-seven percent of urban respondents notetraffi��c congestion as a top fi��ve gov-ernance issue, and 23 per cent ofthem say better facilities for cyclistsand pedestrians on roads is a top fi��ve

What do voters want? Better job opportunities tops the listHealthcare and drinking water too are among the top fi��ve issues for Indian voters, reveals ADR’s national survey. Defence and terrorism are not priority issues for most