India remains a very High Optimism Index society. Almost 2/3rd of Indians remain high on optimism saying that the worst is over and it will get better from here onwards. This has been revealed by Cvoter Exclusive COVID Tracker Wave 3 Survey.
Basically, more people are getting alert, the more they are consuming the information and more preparedness is making the panic levels in control. BUT there are clear socio-economic trends visible in the data. As the education levels go up, more people are aware that this threat is real, not exaggerated. And as the income levels go down, more people are panicked that they are going to be infected. In short, the bottom of the pyramid are more panicked, but the middle class is holding up the fort.
It’s intriguing to observe the Socio-Economic patterns in this perception.
Females are more optimist
The Optimism goes up with Age. Senior Citizen of India are more confident that we will sail through this crisis. Low income group, while being extremely low on resources, are high on their morale and spirit of we shall overcome.
The Optimism is lower in Urban areas when compared to rural India.
On the question of preparedness, CVoter asked the question “How many days of Ration/ medicine etc. or money for ration/medicine etc. is available for your family in your house?”.
In the first week after Nationwide lockdown, a large number reported they do not have enough to last 3 weeks.
In the second week however, Indian households have prepared better. Though it remains a fact that a little more than 10% Indians in bottom of the pyramid, still remain in the same category of either hand to mouth or just a day or two of ration with them, but the Indian Middle Class is reporting a stock of one week going up by several weeks to go through this lockdown period.
There are less social and more economic pattern to this
Low Income and Low social strata are confirming that they don’t have enough to take care of their families, and the higher income groups have much bigger buffer to take the shock. Almost half of Urban India is well stocked while only about one third of Rural India says there is enough in terms of resources to survive this period.
The Eastern Indian Zone is reporting high levels of anxiety on this front while the West Zone is showing the least, probably because of much larger per capita cash reserve than their counterparts in the East. Interesting to see, the Senior Citizen again happen to be the most well stocked during this crisis, as in their routine they might have been planning better due to their age-related issues. Probably the life long experience of dealing with crisis is coming handy.
This is significant because from the health perspective the 60+ Age group is most vulnerable in Corona Crisis.
About the Survey
Current survey findings and projections are based on CVoter daily tracking poll on CATI, conducted during last seven days among 18+ adults nationwide. The data is weighted to the known demographic profile of the States.
The sample spread is across all Assembly segments across all states.
This survey covered all States in India and was conducted in 10 languages as part of CVoter’s routine OmniBus.
