Page 37 - IMDR EBOOK 20 OCT 2020
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"Pandemic and Beyond: Naviga ng the New Normal"                                             E - Book Year 2020


                                  An Empirical study on the Impact of COVID-19
         5                 on Lifestyle of Indians during a Lockdown period in India.


                                      Dr. Suraj Chandrakant Kamble - Assistant Professor – DES’s IMDR, Pune
           ABSTRACT
           COVID – 19; Corona Virus Disease, the rst case of corona virus pandemic in India was
           reported on January 30, 2020. As on April 27, 2020 the ministry of health and family welfare
           have conrmed a total of 26917 cases, 5,914 recoveries and 826 deaths in the country and
           experts are suggesting that the rate of infection could be much higher as India’s testing rates
           are amongst the lowest. Looking at the situation in china and some major countries like Italy,
           USA, France and Japan, Indian Government had taken the precautionary step of announcing
           the curfew and then a lockdown of 21 days, 19 days and 14 days respectively till May 17,
           2020.Every citizen of the country was asked to stay inside the house and step out only for
           emergency by maintaining social distancing.
           As this lockdown has forced everybody to stay inside the house, everyone has got ample time to
           utilise. The researcher has tried to study the current lifestyle during the outbreak of Covid-19
           and Implementation of Lockdown and assessed the Psychological pattern of consumption. This
           study tries to analyse and explain the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on lifestyle of Indians.
           The Researcher collected 273 responses from 82 cities and 22 states & UT of India through
           structured questionnaire. ANOVA, Crosstab, and descriptive statistical techniques were used
           for data analysis.
           The study found that,People are buying grocery and food item from local vendors and visiting
           such shops only twice a week. They are helping to the government by contributing a donation to
           the care funds. Time Spent with Family, Online Meetings, Use of Mobile, TV, Internet and social
           media has increased during this lockdown period. Few people registered the major decrease in
           Income,  Workload,  Social  Connect,  and  Ofce/College/Social  Life.  Expenses,  pursuing
           hobbies, mental health, Physical Health did not see any major changes during this Lockdown
           period.
           Keywords: COVID-19, Pandemic, Lockdown, Social Distancing,


           INTRODUCTION
           March  22  was  the  day  when  honourable  Prime
           Minister Shri. Narendra Modi announced rst ever
           national level lockdown or a ‘JanataCurfew’ for a
           day. A lockdown in 75 districts that had registered
           a Covid-19 case was also announced on the same
           day.  All  ve  major  metros—Delhi,  Mumbai,
           Bengaluru,  Chennai,  and  Kolkata—were  in  this
           list, and pulled down their shutters. Till then many
           State  governments  had  taken  precautionary
           decisions  pertaining  to  their  states.  Then,  on
           March  25  again  Prime  Minister  Shri.  Narendra
           Modi  andthe  Central  government  extended  the
           lockdown  to  the  entire  nation  for  three  weeks
           leading  till  April  14,  2020  and  made  it  more
           stringent.  Every  state,  Union  Territory,  District,
           Village, and every Lane was under lockdown for 21
           days  starting  00:00  hours  of  25thMarch  and
           enforced the Disaster Management Act 2005(Mehta, Mehta & Kumar, 2020).This is the biggest
           lockdown in the history of the world happening in a democracy of 1.34 billion people. The
           people of India received essentially 3 hours’ notice to prepare for a three-week long lockdown
           (www.livemint.com).Further the lockdown was increased till 3rd May and then till 17th May
           2020. During this entire lockdown period, the exceptions were given to the services classied as
           “essential", which includes hospitals, diagnostic, laboratories, banks, food & grocery stores,
           milk stores, vegetable vendors and petrol pumps.
           The roads which were crowded with vehicles, stalls, hawkers, people; were now occupied by
           police. Boundaries of Major Districts, Cities and Villages were closed by either Govt. or local
           public. International and Domestic ights were stopped, Local and State Transport, Movement
           of people was on hold. People related to essential services only were allowed to travel. Entire
           Nation was locked inside the home. #StayHome #StaySafe started trending across the Globe.


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