Kerala
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Thiruvananthapuram
Majority in Kerala opposed to hartals: KSSP study
Special Correspondent
| `Both the poor and rich sections oppose hartal' |
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Who loves hartals in Kerala? The popular perception is that though nobody wants it, everybody loves a hartal as it brings a forced holiday that could be spent either at home with eats and videos or, for the few fortunate ones, a quick jaunt to some fancy location outside the State. But the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad's study `How Kerala Lives, How Kerala Thinks' says that only a shade over 35 per cent of the population loves hartals and bandhs and that opinion is shared by people belonging to every economic strata.
The study, which had a sample size of 6,000 Kerala homes, says that opposition to hartals is shared almost equally by the poorest and the richest in the State while there is a few more among the middle classes who are tolerant towards the agitation that has drawn the wrath of the Kerala High Court and many opinion leaders. Apparently a hartal hurts the richest and the poorest the hardest, though in different ways, and hence while 65.1 per cent of the higher middleclass consider hartals a bane, 64.3 per cent of their poorest cousins also think so, prompting the authors of the report to describe the tangency of opinions between the two diametrically opposed social classes as `amazing'. Among the other poorer sections, 62.3 per cent think hartals are fine and they are joined by 63.1 per cent of the lower middle class. But the overall picture is still weighted against hartals.
But Kerala appears still a long way away from accepting self-financing institutions as a fact of life.
Only a minuscule 12.7 per cent of the population thinks that self-financing institutions are inevitable. Only 8.5 per cent of those who voted Left Democratic Front in the last Assembly elections think so whereas 17 per cent of those who voted for the United Democratic Front and the BJP feel the opposite is true. The preference for self-financing institutions goes with rise in economic status, indicating the increasing ability to purchase educational services. Although public opinion is yet to swing decisively in favour of self-financing, that does not seem to apply to foreign investment (not remittances from Gulf). According to the study, 20.4 per cent of the population think that foreign investment would do good for the State.
The study has also some interesting insights about the efficiency of public institutions such as Government departments and the judiciary.
About 75 per cent of those who participated in the study are of the view that one department where nothing gets done easily is the Police Department.
The judiciary does not come out any better in public evaluation, with 74 per cent of those surveyed feeling that it is not better.
In the perception of the people, the departments where things get done with least difficulty are the offices of the Local Self Government Department and Krishi Bhavans under the Department of Agriculture.
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"Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power.
It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality."
- Dr BR Ambedkar
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