Nearly ninety six percent of the population is aware of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat. The programme has reached 100 crore people who are aware and have listened to the programme at least once. These statistics were revealed in an exhaustive study commissioned by Prasar Bharati and conducted by Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak. The findings of the study were brought out in a press conference by Shri Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO, Prasar Bharati and Shri Dheeraj P. Sharma, Director, IIM Rohtak.

Shri Sharma, speaking about the findings of the study 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 report delves into the reasons behind the popularity of PM’s radio broadcast and lists out the most liked characteristics that hook people to the broadcast. A powerful and decisive leadership that speaks to establish an emotional connect with the audience is cited as reason for the following of the programme. The Prime Minister has been credited by the population of the country as knowledgeable and having sympathetic and empathetic approach. Directly engagement with the citizens and guidance is also cited as a reason for the trust the programme has established.

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 governments working and 73% are optimistic and feel the country is going to progress. 58% of listeners have responded saying their living conditions have improved while a similar number (59%) have reported increased trust in 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 3 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 to 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 comes in at second place with 18%.

Speaking about the profile of respondents, Director Shri Dheeraj Sharma informed that the total sample strength of 10003 was polled for this study of which 60% were males while 40% were females. 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.

Shri Sharma further said that Data was collected from North, South, East, and West regions of India using snowball sampling with approximately 2500 responses per zone, through a psychometrically purified survey instrument

Shri Gaurav 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 Mann ki Baat is being broadcast by more than 500 broadcast centers of All India Radio.

Going into the thought process behind commissioning of the study, Shri Dwivedi stated that that from time to time there was a thought that we must get more well-rounded feedback in terms of the overall programme and not for particular episodes only. 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 18th April, 2022.

About Mann Ki Baat:

The popular program on All India Radio, Prime Minister’s Mann Ki Baat was started on 3rd October, 2014 and is broadcast on last Sunday of every month at 11 AM on entire AIR and DD network. The 30 –Minute program is completing 100 episodes on 30th April 2023. Mann Ki Baat is translated by AIR into 22 Indian languages, 29 dialects and 11 Foreign languages, apart from English. It includes Hindi, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannad, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Odiya, Konkani, Nepali, Kashmiri, Dogri, Manipuri, Maithili, Bengali, Assamese, Bodo, Santhali, Urdu, Sindhi. The Dialects include Chhattisgarhi, Gondi, Halbi, Sargujia, Pahari, Sheena, Gojri, Balti, Ladakhi, Karbi, Khasi, Jaintia, Garo, Nagamese, Hmar, Paite, Thadou, Kabui, Mao, Tangkhul, Nyishi, Adi, Monpa, Ao, Angami, Kokborok, Mizo, Lepcha, Sikkimese (Bhutia).

Saurabh Singh