Pucho, magar dhyan se...!
Field work from a research perspective is often more complicated than one thinks.
Appointment seeking, permission slips, mountains of paperwork, repeated enumerator training, coordination and so much more is also a major part of field work. However, it can all go to waste after one interaction.
Outline India, while conducting a rather sensitive survey on information dissemination and its impact, conducted a data collection in a remote town in Bihar. For the relevance of the study, the survey required information regarding the kind of content they consume in addition to knowledge of the local political parties, leaders, and coalitions in that area.
After finishing a majority of the surveys, the team reached the last location. Upon looking at the questions, the individual became rather upset as to why the party they support had not been included in the study. They also accused us of trying to ‘change’ political ideologies of people to support another party’s agenda.
OI was puzzled since owing to the sensitivity of the subject, our tool mentioned all the names of the parties - keeping in mind regional ones too so as to not create unnecessary disturbance.
Further questioning led us to realize that the person was actually a new tenant who had recently moved from another state. Due to the study's current focus on a specific area of Bihar, the political figures they supported in their home state were understandably left out of the tool. After helping them understand this, the individual calmed down but still seemed angry at the situation.
Lesson: While the OI team takes into account the regional differences for every study, this was rather a new experience which helped the field team better understand ways to tackle sensitive matters and even accusations with utmost patience and empathy.