KOLKATA: The report of a survey by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) show that the household incomes of 85% of Indians, living in the national capital region (NCR), will be affected severely due to the lock-down imposed by the Indian Government, in light of the global pandemic caused by COVID-19.
The survey, conducted on a random sample of 1750 adults from 31 districts of the Delhi-NCR Region, shows that only 15.5% of households reported that their incomes or wages were not reduced in the 2 weeks of lock-down, prior to the survey. Casual labors, meanwhile, were disproportionately affected with 74.5% of them, stating a severe reduction in their wages. However, only 46.7% of regular white-collar workers and 41.6% of farmers reported the same.
The data from the telephonic survey conducted between April 3-6, by the Delhi-based public policy think-tank, was released on the 13th of April, 2020. 62.5% of respondents strongly supported the lock-down and its extension even though shortages in food, cooking fuel and medicines affected 29.3% of them, said the report.
Furthermore, the analysis from the DCVTS survey show that 95% of respondents acknowledged COVID-19 to be highly dangerous with 65.3% of them, not seeing any chance of them getting infected with COVID-19. The analysis also shows that only 36.4% of them were able to correctly identity fever, cough and breathing difficulties as its symptoms.
One of the key findings state that about 36% of respondents reported that members of their households curtailed visiting a health facility for a medical condition unrelated to COVID-19. This could lead to further stress upon the Indian healthcare infrastructure, post lock-down.
This was the first round of NCAER’s Covid-19 survey of Delhi-NCR, with the second one, lined up for late April and another round slated to happen sometime in May.