Modi regime responsive to needs of the marginalised, irrespective of religion: PM EAC

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The Narendra Modi administration has been responsive to the needs of the marginalised sections of society, an indication that democracy in India is strengthening, according to a paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, or the PM EAC.

“By quantifying changes in the provision of amenities across religions, social groups, and geographies based on faith, this paper challenges a popular perception-based narrative that democracy has been declining in India since 2014,” the paper, authored by Shamika Ravi, a member of the PM EAC, said.

“In sharp contrast, our results indicate that the government is responsive to the needs of the marginalised section of society irrespective of religion, caste, or place of residence, which is an alternative and more robust indicator of strengthening democracy in India.”

In the recent years, India has receded on several global indices, like those by Freedom in the World Index, V-DEM indices, and Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index. In fact, the Freedom in the World Index and V-DEM indices have placed India at the same level as during the Emergency of the 1970s.

An earlier EAC PM paper had contended that there were serious problems with the methodology used in these perception-based indices and they were primarily based on the opinions of a tiny group of unknown experts.

Classifying democracies 

Shamika Ravi said that classifying countries into democratic or non-democratic regimes is relatively straightforward, with primary criteria being universal franchise; free, fair, and regular elections; peaceful transfer of power; and division of power between the executive, legislative, and judiciary.

“However, quantifying the functioning of democracy or objectively assessing whether democracy is strengthening or weakening within democratic regimes remains a challenge. Despite this, international attempts to quantify the functioning of democracy are made essentially by conducting perception-based surveys of academics, professionals, and civil society members,” she said.

Ravi believes that as abstract ideas like freedom of speech and expression, are important for the functioning of democracy, it is equally important to look at the responsiveness of the democratically elected government to the materialistic needs of the marginalised people across religions, social groups, and geographies.

The poor in a democracy expect their government to liberate them from their daily drudgery and struggles by providing them access to basic amenities like water, toilets, electricity, formal finance, clean cooking gas, and instruments of connectivity and communications, she added.

All round gains 

The paper looks at data on the provision of amenities such as electricity, access to toilets, bank accounts, clean cooking gas, mobile phones, and water on-premises to the poorest 20 percent households across religion, social groups and geographies. It uses the household-level nationally representative data on more than 1.2 million households from two rounds of the National Family Health Survey, conducted in 2015–16 and 2019–21.

While with respect to electricity, bank account, mobiles and access to toilets, the gains were widespread across religions and social groups. In some instances, minorities have gained more than the majority.

However, the government must do more to uplift the poorest 20 percent of households across religions and social groups by focusing on amenities like cooking gas and water on-premises, it added.

The study does not find any evidence that the government catered only to one community (Hindu majority) or against any minority groups in the country. It also does not find any discrimination between geographies and religious clusters in provision of basic amenities such as electricity, toilets, water, bank accounts, mobile phones and liquefied petroleum gas.

“These results show that the roots of Indian democracy run deep and its health is reaffirmed in its day to day functioning and practice,” Ravi said.