Education, employment, health top priorities of JK voters: Survey

Srinagar, Apr 4: The government’s performance over its promises made during election campaigning as a political party in Jammu and Kashmir has been below average, Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), an election watch organisation said in its survey report.

The survey titled “All India survey on governance issues and voting behaviour 2018” has suggested that better employment, school education and health care has been the top most priorities of the voters in the state.

In J&K, the survey was conducted in two constituencies as a sample for the study in which respondents were asked about their priorities during election and accordingly the performance of the elected political parties was rated by the ADR.

The surveyors rated performance of the government through a three-level scale: Good (5 points), Average (3 points) and Bad (1 points).

The study concluded that 69.23 per cent voters in Jammu and Kashmir vote for a candidate or a party with a promise of providing better employment opportunities to people against which the performance of the same party after voted to power remains below average with 2.33 points.

Nearly 57.36 per cent voters as per the study had prioritized better school education in the list of demands in the state against which the ruling party delivered an average (2.31) performance.

As per the study, the facilities of better hospitals and primary health care has been the third most priority of the voters as 41.78 per cent of the electorates cast their vote with a promise of advanced health care.

The government’s performance in this sector has been rated as below average with 21.9 points.

A breakup of the voters’ priority as per the study suggests that the demand for such services has been more in rural areas compared to the urban J&K.

In rural areas of the state, nearly 71 per cent voters cast their vote after promised better employment, which in urban areas is listed as a prime demand by 63 per cent voters.

In both these cases, the performance of government is rated as 2.32 and 2.35, respectively.

Similarly, in rural and urban areas, 64 per cent and 60 per cent voters respectively, cast their vote with a promise to have better school education.

For rural J&K, 42 per cent voters hope better health care which in the case of urban areas of the state is recorded as 41 per cent.

The study claimed that government’s performance in both rural and urban areas for better health care remains below average.

The election watch organisation said that as many as 2,73,487 interviewees across 534 Lok Sabha constituencies of India were conducted  to know people’s preferences and governance after elections.

Of the 2,73,487 voters selected for the sample, the survey document said that 64.88% were men and 35.12% were women. “65.28% of respondents were between 18 and 40 years of age. 64.84% respondents were from rural locations while 35.16% were from urban India,” it said.

The other promises, which as per the study influence’s voter’s behaviour in the state includes agriculture loans, better transport, better roads and availability of drinking water.