COVID 19 Poll: Only 27% of respondents shifted to working from home during the Coronavirus lockdown in India

Team CVoter conducted a survey from 8–12th May 2020 to find out about the economic wellbeing of Indians across the country amidst the Coronavirus. In this survey, respondents were asked about the impact of the nationwide Coronavirus lockdown on their work-home life, working patterns, income, job security and optimism about the future. Team Polstrat will break down the overall economic impact on respondents and their job security during the Coronavirus crisis.

Majority of respondents have been taking better care of their health (65.4%), doing more household work (55.7%) and spending more time with elders in the family (58.5%) amidst the Coronavirus crisis. Only 27.5% of respondents said that they were able to work from home during the lockdown, while an additional 6.3% of respondents said they were already doing this before the Coronavirus lockdown. This means roughly only 34% of respondents were working from home during the lockdown.

Who was working from home during the lockdown?

We evaluated work from home patterns across demographics and of all age groups, 19.4% of those in the middle age group, said they were able to work from home during/because of the Coronavirus crisis. While 35.4% (Below 25) of freshers said they were able to work from home and 24.7% of youngsters (25–45) said the same. The ability to work from home also varied slightly by gender, with roughly 30% of males stating they were able to work from home, while only 25% of women said the same. The ability to work from home also varied by geographical location, with 42.1% of respondents living in urban areas being able to shift to working from home, while only 34.1% of respondents in rural areas were able to do so.

Additionally, as expected, respondents in higher education and higher income groups reported being much likely to be able to work from home as compared to those with middle and lower education. 42.6% of those with higher education said they were able to work from home during/because of the Coronavirus lockdown, while 36.3% of those in the higher income groups said the same. This figure was substantially lower for those in the lower education (23.1%) and income groups (23.7%).

Not everyone can work from home

Usually, those with higher education and income tend to have more job security, luxury and resources to work from home as compared to those with lower education and job security. In fact, as per a reportby a leading IT service management company roughly 54% of Indian companies do not have the technology and resources to enable employees to work from home. This includes non-IT companies, small and medium enterprises, BPO, KPO companies, employees working for airlines, leisure, hospitality industry, food preparation, retail sales, production, construction, maintenance and agriculture, amongst many others. Additionally, overall internet penetration in India is roughly 50%, which also includes mobile internet subscribers, which often doesn’t have the bandwidth to support daily work.

These unequal patterns across education and income groups which affect an individual’s ability to work from home are common globally. Astudy done by the Economic Policy Institute revealed that low wage earners have the least flexibility in their jobs in the United States, with only 9.2% of workers in the lowest quartile of wage distribution being able to work from home. This figure increases to 61.5% for workers in the highest quartile. This income inequality is much more pronounced for women usually, due to the gender pay gap andoccupational segregation of jobs enforced by gender, both of which affect their ability to work from home.

In addition to this, it is important to consider the age-distribution of employees with the ability to work from home. Younger workers are much more likely to be able to work from home, partly because of the kind of jobs they hold, the industries they work in, and also due to their familiarity with collaboration, messaging software. This is true in other countries such as the United States as well, whereby only 25.5% of older workers can work from home as compared to 31.4% of younger workers (25–34 years). It is also important to note that, older age groups are significantly more vulnerable to the Coronavirus, and often if they do not have the ability to work from home, they willrisk their lives to earn a paycheck.

In addition to this, a study conducted by the New York Times, which aimed at analyzing smartphone location data revealed that not only do people in higher-income groups have the higher job security and flexibility, but they are also able to limit their movement and work from home, giving them greater protection from getting sick. Due to all these pre-existing social inequalities, a majority of people from around the world do not have the ability to shift to working from home, even in the middle of a global pandemic.

From Polstrat, a non-partisan political consultancy which aims to shift the narrative of political discourse in the country from a problem-centric to a solutions-oriented approach. All survey findings and projections are based on the Team CVoter “Personal Wellbeing Survey” survey carried out in December 2019, April 2020 and May 2020 among 18+ adults statewide, including every major demographic (Sample Size: 2488). Team CVoter (Center For Voting Opinions and Trends in Election Research) is a leading international stakeholder research organization with its roots in India.

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