An election is a process by which people choose their representatives who formulate policies that affect their lives. It is a medium where the voice of the voters is heard. In order to understand what is happening in Uttarakhand, where elections will be held in the first phase, and to know the process, we conducted a survey of a rural area Tapeda in Nanakmatta town of Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand. While doing this study, we spoke to nearly 25 people and understood factors like their political aspirations and socio-economic status, which determine their choice of vote.
The present study aims to understand voter’s preferences, how they are influenced by a political party or a candidate, their voting decisions and behavior, what people need and want from the party and the candidate and what they think about a political party. In the village, most people are engaged in farming, teaching, running shops and labour work. There are different castes residing there such as Baniya, Thakur, Chaudhary, Kumar and indigenous group called Tharu tribe.
As soon as we met Soni (26) belongs to the Tharu tribe, she started telling us her demands. She was saying something like this, that whichever party comes in power, there should be good roads and good drainage facilities near her house, and at the same time, good health facilities should be provided in her village. She said that the government has taught a course that teaches easy methods of farming and gives us a chance to do all these things. She says that last time we asked our pradhan to build a temple, but he did not build any temple for us, so we did not even vote for him at that time. When he came to seek votes, he had told us that he would build a temple here, but that did not happen.
Development, security and social progress are Soni’s top priorities. She needs access to healthcare, convenient drains and decent roadways are her expectations. She wants to be a successful farmer and needs help to do so. But Soni doesn’t know who will fulfill her demands. In the course of the conversation, she told us that so far, no pradhan has listened to our demands to this extent, but this time, our demands are such that they should be fully met. Whoever fulfills our demands, we will vote for them.
In this context, 30-year-old Deepika Bahuguna, a female teacher, said during the interaction, “There is a government hospital here, but no doctor is available to treat and the facilities are also not good, but this does not mean that the government has not done anything for us. Just a few months ago, most people in the village received funds to build toilets in their homes under the Prime Minister Swachh Bharat Mission, so we feel that the current government is working on something”. This shows how people assess government actions based on their personal experiences with different services. It’s like saying that despite some problems, they see efforts being made in certain areas.
We also came to know that all the schemes provided by the government in the village so far have different importance for everyone. Abhilasha, a 43-year-old Anganwadi worker, said, “The government’s Nanda Gaura scheme will help my daughter grow. That is why I am thinking of giving my vote to the current government. So that we can get the benefit of more schemes”. This gives us insight into the woman’s other needs as well as what kind of help she needs. This shows how Abhilasha values the Nanda Gaura scheme for her daughter’s growth, influencing her decision to support the current government for more helpful programs.
“When candidates come to Tapeda village to campaign, they make many false promises, such as we will get you a house, we will provide free ration, but this never happens,” Akash said during his conversation. He mentioned that candidates visit Tapeda village and offer various kinds of materials to the people, including sarees for women, some money is also given, sweets and cricket kits are also given so that people give their vote to them and many people also take all these things and give their vote to them.
Amit Kumar, 34 years old, belongs to the Baniya community, runs his own fertilizer shop and enjoys a good position in society. Through conversation with them, He says, “We assess the candidate’s work, their character in society and how they communicate. Additionally, we consider the facilities they can provide for us; these are the criteria we use to choose our candidate”. Through conversation with him, we know his thoughts and how he make voting decisions and On the other hand if we see’s Nitesh Singh Rana’s dialogue, who is 25 years old, says, Whichever party gives job opportunities to our local villagers, I will go to that party because it is good for everyone. From this, we came to know about the ways in which many people will vote for the candidates this time.
When we collected the data through surveys, it became clear that we have more opinions of males in comparison to females. In the interviews taken by us, there were a total of 25 voters out of which 14 were males and 11 were females. We see such a ratio because when we were talking to women, we used to see hesitation in them and they were afraid to give information related to our questions but such hesitation was less visible among males. We had to go in the evening to interview these males because the males of the house go out of the house the whole day for their work. But when we went in the morning, we found most of the women at home.
Apart from the help of the government, the people of the village are also fulfilling their needs by forming a group called samuh’s in a way. They do not have to pay interest on taking money from the group, while they also have to pay interest on taking a loan from the bank.
After talking to them, it was found that they have a habit of stating their own demands and are afraid to put their point or demand in front of any party, while this is their political freedom and they do not know it. It was found from the talk of some people that they do not have awareness about the election, and they give their vote to anyone without thinking or being lured by anyone, without knowing the value of their one vote. Looking at the economic status of the people, it was found that there are many people whose economic conditions are very good, but still they are in the category of BPL cards and are able to take advantage of the facilities available to them. However, the people actually coming under the BPL category are deprived of all these facilities.
•Here are some photos we took during the survey.
•This is the data we collected during the entire five to six-day survey.