81 Per Cent Back Govt’s Efforts To Contain Covid-19, 47 Per Cent Believe The Virus Is Chinese Conspiracy: Survey

A survey of 2,000 people conducted by Jan Ki Baat revealed overwhelming support for steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contain the spread of Covid-19, disease caused by the novel Coronavirus.

81 per cent of the respondents are satisfied with the steps taken by the central government with support cutting across all demographics - men, women, young and old. More than 80 per cent also support PM Modi’s decision to lockdown the country. His supporters are in favour of implementing the nationwide curfew strictly.

Jan Ki Baat conducted this nationwide survey between 18 and 24 March. It claims that survey’s respondents are representative of India’s demographic profile.

“This quantitative study has been conducted via Phone interviews by the Jan ki Baat verified citizen reporter model present across the country. The sample has been picked randomly being representative of the demographic, and age profile of the country. There have been three age groups 18 to 40,40 to 65, and 65 plus which are selected in this study. The questions in the survey have been asked sequentially. The entire data response has been embedded in the Jan Ki Baat Probability Map of Outcome Model to remove the error,” Pradip Bhandari, CEO of Jan Ki Baat told Swarajya.

42 per cent of the respondents say they are regularly using soaps/sanitisers and have been staying home strictly while 38 per cent say though they are also washing hands regularly but they are going out occasionally also. Of all the respondents, 52 per cent preferred to use soap over sanitiser. Only 15 per cent used both. The ones using sanitisers are those who have to go out for work.

As per the survey, an overwhelming majority of people, 83 per cent to be precise, seem to well aware of the Covid-19 symptoms which should be an encouraging news for the government. It points towards the success of its mass awareness campaign.

Of the respondents, majority of them get their information on Covid-19 from social media, 36 per cent did so from TV (mostly the older generation) while only 10 per cent benefitted from Print media. This should be a good pointed for the government in where to target its advertisement.

Almost half of the respondents (47 per cent) believe that the virus is Chinese conspiracy while 27 per cent say that though it was China’s mistake, it was not deliberate. Rest 27 per cent believe it’s a natural mishap.

Nonetheless, most people are worried and 56 per cent do not have confidence in India’s medical infrastructure to deal with the crisis if Covid-19 spreads. Over 65 per cent of those surveyed think the situation can worsen quickly if the virus spread is not contained early.

Most people are also apprehensive about job and work loss. Only a tiny minority (4 per cent) of respondents feel they won’t be impacted economically. 61 per cent believe there will job losses and 35 per cent say their spending power will come down.