No proof government catered to only one community, says PM’s Economic Advisory Council study

“Objectively quantifying the strengthening or weakening of democracy is a challenging task. Such a critical exercise cannot be based on a survey of perceptions of a small non-representative sample of elite opinion makers. If such an exercise is deemed necessary, it must be based on a representative sample of the underlying population,” Shamika Ravi stated.

“For India, such a sample must represent more than 900 million electors who live in different geographies, belong to distinct social groups, speak in more than 100 languages, and are in various phases of socio-economic development. Though not a perfect substitute for such a survey, one way could be to look at the provision of basic amenities to the poorest 20% of households across different social groups, religions, and geographies,” said the working paper titled ‘A Secular Democracy in Practice: Objective Assessment of Amenities Programs in India’.

“Based on a nationally representative sample of more than 1.2 million households across 2015–16 and 2019–21, we do not find any evidence that the government catered only to one community (Hindu majority) or discriminated across households based on districts where one religious community was dominant. With respect to electricity, bank accounts, mobiles, and access to toilets, the gains were widespread across religions and social groups. As a matter of fact, in some instances, minorities have gained more than the majority,” the paper stated.

However, it said that the government must do more to uplift the poorest 20 per cent of households across religions and social groups by focusing on amenities such as LPG and water on-premises.

In her paper, Shamika Ravi has analysed the data of two rounds of the National Family Health Surveys 2015-16 and 2019-21 on six amenities — electricity, water on the premises, toilet facility, mobile phone, bank account and use of LPG as cooking fuel.

“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. 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,” the paper said.