Survey: city scores poorly on ‘democratic citizenship’

January 28, 2015 12:49 pm | Updated 12:49 pm IST - Bengaluru:

If you think that young adults in the cosmopolitan city of Bengaluru would rate high on their perceptions of democratic citizenship, here is a survey that would urge you to reconsider the assumption.

Sample these statistics specific to Bengaluru from a national survey of high school and college students (aged between 15 and 19) by the Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCW): 72 per cent of college students surveyed felt military should rule India for some years; 64 per cent of school and college respondents felt the primary role of women is household work; 74 per cent of college-goers said construction workers cannot demand proper housing or toilets.

Bengaluru was among 11 cities where youngsters were measured on ‘Young Nagarik Meter’, and the city scored very low in their perception towards rule of law, gender equality, diversity and social justice and democratic governance. The overall score on “democratic citizenship” (measured on six sub-domains) stood at 16 per cent, second lowest after Delhi.

Significantly, scores of youngsters in metropolitan cities on many counts on their understanding of democracy is far lower than in non-metros. Interestingly, youngsters in Bengaluru appear to do better on issues related to environment. For instance, 73 per cent voted for re-use of rainwater. A close reading of the survey also reveals possible confusions on many counts as well, especially on issue of gender. For example, 74 per cent of Bengaluru respondents felt that women perform equally or better than men, while 64 per cent (highest for any city) felt that women’s primary role is domestic.

The data for the study was taken from 6,168 high school and 4,374 college students from six metros (New Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata) and five non-metros (Bhopal, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna and Guwahati). Social Research Institute of IMRB conducted the field research.

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