Giving Compass' Take:

• Kat Devlin shares an overview of polling conducted in India from May 23 to July 23, 2018 that offers insights into the overall feelings and contrasts between groups. 

• How can funders use this information to inform giving in India? 

• Learn about philanthropy in India in 2019. 

Most Indians are satisfied with their country's direction and the economic prospects of the next generation despite dissatisfaction over issues including unemployment and the efficacy of elections.

Indian adults certainly recognize that their personal economic well-being has benefited greatly from strong national economic performance: Indian economic growth has averaged 7.3% per year since 2014. Roughly two-thirds (65%) say the financial situation of average people in India is better today than it was 20 years ago. Only 15% say things are worse.

Lack of employment opportunities is seen by the public as India’s biggest challenge, with 76% of adults saying it is a very big problem – little changed over the past year. In 2018, despite an estimated 3.5% formal unemployment rate, 18.6 million Indians were jobless and another 393.7 million work in poor-quality jobs vulnerable to displacement, according to estimates by the International Labor Office.

When asked whether various challenges facing India have gotten better or worse in the past five years, a time frame that largely encompasses the term of the current Modi government, few Indians voice a positive judgment. Just one-in-five (21%) say job opportunities have gotten better, while 67% think things have gotten worse (including 47% who say much worse). A similar share believes prices of goods and services (19%), corruption (21%) and terrorism (21%) have gotten better.

As Indians head into election season, more than half (54%) are satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country. However, satisfaction has declined 25 percentage points from 2017, when 79% voiced approval. Men are more likely than women to give Indian democracy a thumbs-up, though one-in-five women decline to offer an opinion. Indians with a secondary education are more likely than those with less than a secondary education to be satisfied with their democracy, though one-in-six (17%) less-educated Indians offer no opinion. Such satisfaction is a partisan affair: 75% of BJP supporters, but only 42% of Congress adherents, are satisfied with how Indian democracy functions.

In April and May 2019, Indians will go to the polls to elect a new Lok Sabha, the 545-seat lower house of the Indian Parliament. Roughly 900 million people are eligible to vote. When it comes to specific aspects of their democracy, Indians voice strong frustrations about elections and elected officials.

Indians (71%) overwhelmingly believe trade is good for their nation.Support for trade, in principle, is roughly comparable to that in Japan (72%) and the United States (74%), but lower than that in the European Union (85%), according to a recent international survey by Pew Research Center. And the share of Indian adults who say growing trade and business ties between India and other countries is very good has nearly doubled, from 25% in 2014 to 49% in 2018.

Read the full article about public opinion in India by Kat Devlin at Pew Research Center.