Survey Me Not

Lucknow, 17th September 2010: Phobias are of many types. If you type this word on Google, you’ll get a whole list of them. Some warrant attention while others seem stupid. In my profession, I have come across many types of people. Rude, polite, arrogant, caring, kind, misanthropes, philanthropies, selfish, misers- you name them and I have met them. However, the strangest of them all are those who quickly disappear whenever I appear with a questionnaire in hand.
Some time back as part of a project, for which I did my first market research, I discovered the shyness in many of the respondents. This time I also found that some were simply afraid to be questioned. These two attributes was ingrained in around 85% of the surveyed people. I guess that the question of ‘why people are averse to surveys?’ demands a survey in itself. Most of the people I went to belonged to the upper strata of the society. Education surely couldn’t have been the reason for either shyness or fear that I read on their faces. The questionnaire was not on any sensitive issue. It was a simple ‘Do you love your city’ thing. All of them had been clearly informed about the reason behind the survey and all questions were duly explained to them. There was no pecuniary benefit or loss involved to either party. Most importantly I am not a ‘bhai’ and neither do I know any. So why fear a single page and simple set of questions?
There may be a host of answers to this. One can be that the people who arrive with a questionnaire usually do not give an attractive look. On many occasions their appearance is shabby. Hence the people from well off families gain a wrong impression about the surveyor and the whole survey falls flat. It can also be that the person being interviewed is uncomfortable with the medium of instruction. However the interviewers are aware of the local language of the place where the survey is being taken. What I felt was that most people lacked the will to communicate. In a class of students only a few will be interactive. The rest will just sit through the whole period. They are the ones who lack that will to speak out or are unable to do so for any reason. Especially when their opinion is asked they become silent as if we are living under a dictatorial regime. In my current survey I asked a group of 27 whether they would like to participate. Only 15 did and the rest remained silent. They however kept peeping into the questionnaire being filled by others. I did not ask them their reason for not participating. I know that had they the power to express themselves they would have participated in the first place.