Citizen Perceptions of Government Welfare Schemes in Post-Article 370 Jammu and Kashmir: A Rural–Urban Comparative Study

The study examines beneficiary perceptions of government schemes in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. It adopted a cross-sectional survey of 960 educated rural and urban respondents. It assessed the perceptions of 21 pre-existing, modified, and new schemes on a five-point Likert scale. The findings reveal moderate satisfaction in both settings and significant differences between individual schemes. More positive reactions were observed for several pre-existing schemes, such as Khelo India and JKIDFC Projects, modified schemes, such as Integrated Social Security Scheme and Ladli Beti, and newly introduced schemes, such as PM-AJAY, Post-Matric Scholarship, Tejaswini, and Mumkin; however, perceptions varied across schemes, with some receiving moderate or low ratings. Infrastructure and social security schemes were preferred by rural respondents, whereas urban participants preferred skill development and entrepreneurship programmes. The lowest level of satisfaction was observed among rural government workers and unemployed urban residents. The analysis shows that rural–urban strategies should be customised, new plans should have realistic schedules, and the needs of unsatisfied occupational groups should be targetted.