Even the most well-intentioned policies of the government have often remained ineffective due to public perception, collective social norms and behaviour. In this context, discuss the significance of including behavioural insights in public policymaking. (200 words)
Refer – The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
· In last few years, even the most well-intentioned public policy programmes fail to be adopted by people who would benefit from them the most.
· This is mostly due to public perception, collective social norms and behavioural pattern.
· Given their bounded capacity, people gravitate towards the status quo, which often results in a gap between the policy’s intent and action.
· For example, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) has increased the access to toilets, but still open defecation remains a huge challenge in India.
· Though India has a fixed legal age for marriage, girls are still married young.
· Savings plan remain unused, immunisation initiatives even when offered free has no takers.
Behavioural Insights in policy making
· It is an inductive approach to policy making that combines insights from psychology, cognitive science, and social science with empirically-tested results to discover how humans actually make choices.
· A good understanding about the behavioural pattern of the people, for whom the policy is designed for, will help in identifying the ways in which the people will ignore the scheme.
· A policy can then be made to be better complied by including “nudges”- small, easy and timely suggestions to influence behaviour.
· For example, in an immunisation programme in Rajasthan village shows, incentivising mothers with lentils as free gift nudged more children from benefiting from the programme.
Significance
· A better understanding of behaviour leads to better-designed policies.
· Better designed policies will yield better compliance.
· It will
1. Reduce the policies intent-to-action gap.
2. Make policies cost effective and easy to understand and help people make better choices for themselves.
3. Reduce resource wastage and helps in building a better social capital.
4. Act as an inexpensive and creative tool in the hands of government.
5. Act as a tool for including bottom-up approach where the ground reality gets resembled in the policy.
Abhinav 6 years
MAHATMA GANDHI SAID "CHANGE SHOULD START WITHIN".
BEHAVIOR SCIENCE WHICH COMBINES PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY, ANTHROPOLOGY ECONOMY AND POLITICAL WITH HUMAN BEHAVIOR FOR BETTER DESIGN OF PUBLIC POLICY.
YES, IT IS TRUE THAT EVEN A WELL INTENTION-ED POLICY REMAINS INEFFECTIVE DUE TO LACK OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION. THIS CAN BE SEEN IN LAND REFORMS DURING EARLY PHASE OF INDIA. MOST OF THE STATES DIDN'T DO WELL BECAUSE LACK OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION. NOW A DAYS ADDING BEHAVIORAL APPROACH IN POLICIES ARE YIELDING BETTER RESULTS AROUND WORLD. IT MADE POLICY MAKERS TO UNDERSTAND BETTER. OECD REPORT SAYING THAT 201 INSTITUTIONS AROUND WORLD ARE USING BEHAVIORAL APPROACH WHICH ARE SHOWING BETTER RESULTS. SWATCH BHARAT AN INDIAN INITIATIVE IS A HUGE SUCCESS. POLICY MAKERS HERE CONCENTRATED ON BEHAVIORAL APPROACH. THIS HAS CREATED A NEW TREND IN PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION. TO ADD RICHARD H THALER WON NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMIC 2017 FOR BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS. THIS SHOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE.
SIGNIFICANCE INCLUDES-
1. PROPER ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL NORMS AND APPLYING BEHAVIORAL APPROACH GIVES BETTER RESULTS.
2. THIS APPROACH CAN BE APPLIED TO LARGE SCALE PROGRAMS AS ITS NATURE IS SEEN IN SOCIO AND CULTURAL CONTEXT.
3. THIS SCIENCE CAN REDUCE INTENT TO ACTION GAP. IT CAN REDUCE POOR ADHERENCE AND INCREASE COMPLIANCE.
THIS APPROACH CAN INCREASE PERFORMANCE OF PROGRAM WITH BETTER MANAGEMENT. WITH THIS APPROACH INDIA BENEFITS IN POLICY MAKING IN ORDER TO MAKE IT MORE EFFECTIVE.
PLEASE REVIEW MY ANSWER
IAS Parliament 6 years
Require more conceptual clarity. A good try though. Keep writing.
MALIK SUHAIL MUSHTAQ 6 years
PLEASE REVIEW MY ANSWER
IAS Parliament 6 years
