New Delhi, April 10 : In its third week, the IANS C-Voter Covid Trackers Index of Panic reveals certain clear socio-economic trends amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
According to the latest survey, there is a clear correlation between socioeconomic strata and educational qualification when it comes to sense of panic among the people.
A whopping 45.7 per cent from the upper income group said that they 'strongly disagreed' with the assertion that "I am afraid that either myself or someone in my family may actually catch coronavirus".
However, the numbers drop to 38.9 per cent in the middle income group and further to 37.6 per cent in the low income group.
The story isn't much different when one counts the number respondents saying 'disagree' to the proposed query.
It goes up with financial power.
Meanwhile, the same logic doesn't seem to work if one takes education as a yardstick as compared to financial strength.
It's the middle education group that seems to panic the least by the outbreak of coronavirus. A total of 42.3 per cent from the middle education group said that they don't worry at all, while only 38.1 per cent from the higher education group and 38.6 per cent from the lower education group said the same.
However, 20.2 per cent among the higher education group said they 'disagreed' with the assertion, while that percentage was significantly lower in the other two education segments.
Meanwhile, men seem to be faring better than women, though marginally. Among the age groups, it's the middle aged and the young guns who are panicking the least. As much as 59.5 per cent in the age bracket of 45 to 60 years said they are not panicking at all -- the highest among all age groups.
Among the four zones of India, South India fared the best as far as not panicking is considered.
A total of 60.6 per cent respondents from South India said they aren't afraid of the virus. That number dropped to 55.7 per cent in North India, 51.5 per cent in East India and 47.9 per cent in West India.
Maharashtra, one of the worst affected states, falls in the western part of India.
Finally, among the urban, semi-urban and rural populace, it's the semi-urban that took the cake with 56.9 per cent saying they aren't afraid of catching the virus.
Interestingly, rural India fared marginally better than urban India.
The IANS C-Voter Covid Tracker findings and projections are based on a daily tracking poll on CATI, conducted during the last seven days among 18+ adults nationwide.
The data is weighted to the known demographic profile of the states. The Tracking Poll Fieldwork covers random probability samples during the last seven days from the release date.
The sample spread is across all Assembly segments across all states. The sample size is 1,114. The survey was conducted from April 4-6.
--IANS
abn/arm.
Source: IANS
