Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ key pillar of government’s citizen-outreach, has spurred community action

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has become a key pillar of the government’s citizen-outreach programme addressing multiple social groups such as women, youth, farmers and has spurred community action, according to a report.

The research report identified five key themes associated with Mann Ki Baat – cleanliness and sanitation, health, wellness, water conservation, and sustainability.

It said the programme highlights government and citizen action in these priority areas and in turn, encourages listeners to establish or participate in “change-making” initiatives in their own communities with the aim to have a lasting and sustainable impact on lives of people and for the country.

The report said that Mann Ki Baat speaks directly to people and celebrates their achievements within– and beyond– their communities. The programme celebrates grassroots-level changemakers.

The 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat will be broadcast on Sunday. The programme started on October 3, 2014, months after Narendra Modi took over the Prime Minister’s Office in May.

The research report ‘Mann Ki Baat: A Decade of Reflections’ cited instances of people being “moved to action” after listening to Mann Ki Baat programme.

“In 2019, rural tourism entrepreneur Aditi Balbir began to develop a chain of affordable resorts. In 2021, Madhav Bhat Kullangalu redeveloped a lake on his family farm in Karnataka, thus helping increase groundwater levels, which benefited everyone in the community. In 2022, entrepreneur Ram Shankar Verma established solar energy to power a grain mill in Uttar Pradesh, doubling his own income while creating jobs for many of his neighbours,” the report said.

“Aditi was inspired by the Prime Minister’s call for students to travel more, and more sustainably; Madhav by an episode on water conservation; and Ram by a broadcast on the benefits of solar energy. Since its inception in 2014, the programme has become a key pillar of the government’s citizen-outreach programme,” it added.

‘Axis My India’ was the knowledge partner, the Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) the research partner of the report and the research was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The research looked at what makes Mann ki Baat unique.

“Real application of nudge theory; over 100 crore people have connected to Mann Ki Baat at least once; conversational, personal tone and practical subject matter make the programme feel more relevant, contextual and accessible to its audience; inclusion of all and encourages citizen action to bring about social and economic change; and it highlights key public-policy interventions related to the themes it covers in the episode,” the report said.

The objective of the report was to perform a quantitative and qualitative textual analysis of 99 transcripts of the Mann Ki Baat episodes published from 2014-2023 and also to identify the most prominently discussed thematic areas in the programme.

The themes identified included cleanliness and sanitation, health, wellness, water conservation and sustainable development. There were associated subthemes with the themes, for instance, in health, these were Ayushman Bharat, COVID-19 vaccination and e-Sanjeevani.

The text-mining tool WordStat revealed that Prime Minister addressed the nation as a whole, using words such as “India,” “Indian,” and “people.”

“The programme addressed multiple social groups– “women,” “youth,” and “farmers”– and emphasized on topics such as “cleanliness,” “Yoga,” “water,” “conservation,” “innovation,” “technology,” and “environment,” the report said.

According to the report, the ethos of Mann Ki Baat is 5Cs – Citizen Engagement, Catalysing Collective Actions, Cultural Commitment, Connecting with the Wider Masses and Celebrating Changemakers.

“Mann Ki Baat has encouraged listeners to participate in societal change-making and citizen engagement (is) at the heart of the program. Our research finds that Mann Ki Baat has focused on five thematic areas: cleanliness and sanitation, health, wellness, water conservation, and sustainability,” the report said.

“It emphasizes the role of start-ups and small businesses in achieving a self-reliant India; encourages people of all ages to take action to promote the social and environmental causes that matter most to them; and spreads the word about government policies, programs, and initiatives aimed at economic, social, and sustainable development,” the report said.

Over 100 crore people have connected to Mann Ki Baat at least once.

Mann Ki Baat has been translated into 22 Indian languages, 29 dialects, and 11 foreign languages by AIR. In addition to English, the programme is broadcast in 11 foreign languages such as French, Chinese, Indonesian, Tibetan, Burmese, Baluchi, Arabic, Pashtu, Persian, Dari, and Swahili.

The programme is currently being aired by over 500 broadcast centres of All India Radio and is also available on YouTube and on the Prime Minister’s own communications app.

The report said Mann Ki Baat has catalysed collective action towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“By sharing examples of efforts of common citizens, and by highlighting stories of progress and change, Mann Ki Baat has transformed into an inspirational platform that is encouraging sustainable progress on priority themes that are core to India’s efforts towards achieving the SDGs,” it said.

“Themes such as environmental sensitivity, development challenges, water conservation and sustainability help to raise public awareness about these subjects and energize people to experiment with new, innovative, and long-term solutions, for India and the world,” the report added.

Stating that Mann Ki Baat connects people to their culture and traditional values, the report said people feel it reinforces the country’s traditional practices such as Yoga, Ayurveda and constant learning.

“Mann Ki Baat focuses on priority themes around the SDGs and presents a good example of effective communications for social progress as it leverages real-life examples and experiences to create an emotional connection with listeners,” the report said.

Speaking to ANI, Archana Vyas, Deputy Director, Policy, Communications & Behavioural Insights, at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said with Axis My India and IFC as partners, they looked back at all the episodes of Mann Ki Baat.

A thorough analysis was done about the themes that have been highlighted by the Prime Minister and there was tracing back of people to see if it did really generate any impact.

Vyas said Mann ki Baat has reached to both urban and rural populations.

“There are two or three things which have stood out in the research. One, it is a unique platform which has reached out to both rural and urban populations effectively. The use of traditional as well as digital platforms has been unique and transformational. Nearly 100 crore people have actually watched at least one of the episodes of Mann Ki Baat. It is a case study,” she said.

“Second – it has spurred community action. We have seen through the case studies that communities have taken action on the clarion call of the Prime Minister. This community action can be sustainable because of community adoption,” she added.

Mann Ki Baat is broadcast on the last Sunday of every month. (ANI)