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Who is the most favourite candidate in the Periyakulam constituency? Do people wholeheartedly support the Nutritious Midday Meals Scheme? Would it be better to supply books and uniforms to school children rather than midday meals? To find answers to these questions a public opinion survey was conducted by three M.Sc. students of the Department of Statistics of the Madras Christian College. The students interviewed more than four hundred adults chosen from sixty villages and six towns of Periyakulam Parliamentary constituency.

The AIADMK candidate Mr.S.T.K. Jakkaiyan is the most favourite candidate followed by the DMK. candidate Mr. Cumbum Ramakrishnan. Out of the four hundred and forty one persons who were interviewed forty three percent strongly supported the AIADMK candidate and thirty one percent strongly supported the DMK candidate. Only seventeen percent supported the Congress-I candidate Mr. Shaik Abdul Khader. The other candidates, got less than three percent support each. The AIADMK candidate is more popular than his nearest rival in the Assembly constituencies of Theni, Periakulam, Sedappatti and Bodinayakanur. The DMK candidate is more popular than his rival in the Cumbum Assembly constituency. In Andipatti both rivals are more or less equally popular.

Forty-four percent of the people surveyed strongly welcome the Nutritious Midday Meals Scheme and in addition, another twenty-nine percent say that it is a good scheme. In other words, almost three-fourths of the people are in favour of the scheme. However, twenty-three percent are strongly opposed to the scheme. Taking men alone into consideration, thirty percent of them are against the scheme. Taking women alone into consideration fourteen percent are strongly opposed to the scheme. They feel that they can feed their own children whom they are feeding both in the morning and at night.

In an earlier survey of the whole of TamilNadu we had found that the main reason for children dropping out of school was the lack of funds to buy books and notebooks as well as school uniforms. In order to find out whether the people of Periyakulam Parliamentary constituency preferred books and uniforms to midday meals, respondents were asked the question, 'Do you think that the school going children are in need of text books, notebooks and uniform rather than midday meals?' Fifty percent of the respondents said 'Yes' and thirty seven percent said 'No'. Others did not express a clear opinion. In other words even though the Midday Meals Scheme is welcomed by a majority of the people they would prefer to get free uniforms and books for their children rather than free midday meals.

The survey was conducted by Messrs S.Rajadurai Masilamani, A. Ramesh and H. Suresh as part of their project work for their M.Sc. course in Statistics at the Madras Christian College, Tambaram.