96 per cent population aware of PM Modi's 'Mann Ki Baat' programme: IIM Rohtak Report

New Delhi: Ahead of the 100th episode of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat on April 30, a survey report of the Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak stated that nearly ninety-six per cent of the population is aware of the monthly radio programme.
These statistics were revealed in an exhaustive study commissioned by Prasar Bharati and conducted by the IIM, Rohtak. The findings of the study were brought out in a press conference by Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO, Prasar Bharati and Dheeraj P. Sharma, Director, IIM Rohtak. Nearly ninety six percent of the population is aware of Prime Minister 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, read a statement from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
Sharma, speaking about the findings of the study further said that 23 crore people tune in to the programme regularly while another 41 crores constitute an occasional audience that has the scope of being converted into a regular audience.
The most prominent reason behind the popularity of PM's radio programme, according to the survey, is that the "leader is knowledgeable", "sets emotional connection with the audience", "leader is powerful and decisive", "has sympathetic and empathetic approach" and directly engages 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 per cent are optimistic and feel the country will progress.
58 per cent of listeners have responded saying their living conditions have improved while a similar number (59 per cent) have reported increased trust in Government. The general sentiment towards the Government can be gauged from the fact that 63 per cent of people have said their approach to the Government has become positive and 60 per cent have shown interest in working for nation-building as per the survey.
The study distributes the audience across three platforms with 44.7 per cent of people tuning in to the programme on a TV while 37.6 per cent access it on a mobile device. Viewing the programme is favoured over listening to it, as 62 per cent 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 per cent audience preferring it over any other language while English comes in second place with 18 per cent.
Speaking about the profile of respondents, Director Dheeraj Sharma informed that a total sample strength of 10003 was polled for this study of which 60 per cent were males while 40 per cent were females.
This population was spread over 68 occupations sectors with 64 per cent being from the informal and self-employed sector while students constituted 23 per cent of the studied audience.
Sharma further said, "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."
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 centres of All India Radio.
Going into the thought process behind the commissioning of the study, Dwivedi stated 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 the case with traditional media due to certain limitations. With this perspective, the task of the survey was awarded to IIM Rohtak on April 18, 2022.
The popular program on All India Radio, Prime Minister's Mann Ki Baat was started on October 3, 2014, and is broadcast on the last Sunday of every month at 11 AM on the entire AIR and DD network. (ANI)