COVID-19 Poll: Only 35.5% of Indians think the Coronavirus aid and relief provided by the government is completely sufficient

The Team CVoter Corona Tracker Economy Battery (Wave 3) survey conducted in May 2020 asked respondents about their view of the effect of the Coronavirus crisis and lockdown on their economic condition. The survey included questions on respondents’ viewpoint on the implementation of the lockdown, the relief package announced by the government as well as fear of not being able to afford medical care, food and job loss. In today’s blog, Team Polstrat breaks what respondents think of the aid and reliefs packages provided by the government and the implementation of the nation-wide lockdown.

Overall, we observe that there is overwhelming support (91.1%) for the nation-wide lockdown implemented by the government. In fact, 79.8% of respondents support both the lockdown and the way it was implemented by the government. This overwhelming support is consistent across demographics such as age groups, gender, income, education and region. On March 25th, the Indian government announced a nation-wide lockdown, forcing the entire country to stay at home to curb the spread of the Coronavirus. On May 4 and May 18 during the third and fourth phase of the lockdown, the government announced some relaxations to the lockdown in various parts of the country.

In addition to this, the Central government on May 15, announced a stimulus package worth Rs. 20 lakh crore to help ease the financial burden on the economy of the pertaining to MSMEs, other businesses, migrant workers, farmers, street vendors. The government has also announced cash and social security transfers for the elderly and women, free food grains (an extra distribution of five kg grain and one kg pulses under the public distribution system), free cooking gas cylinders along with increased wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Additionally, several state governments have released relief packages to migrant and unregistered workers. Support for the relief packages provided by the government is mixed, with 35.5% of people stating they think it is completely sufficient. Overall 63% think the government relief was sufficient, while 31.5% think it wasn’t.

Who thinks the government aid and relief being promised is sufficient?

When comparing the percentage of people who think the government relief is completely sufficient, we observe that the percentage of respondents higher-income groups who think the relief and aid is sufficient is much lesser (30.3%) as compared to those in lower-income groups (37.2%).

However, interestingly, if we look at the total yes and no figures (combining somewhat sufficient and completely sufficient), we observe that higher income groups have the highest approval rating for the relief packages (69.8%), while lower-income groups have the lowest (58.9%). The higher your income is, the lesser relief and aid you are likely to require from the government, hence, it could be the reason why those with higher incomes are more approving of the relief and aid packages announced by the government.

Similarly, across education groups, we see that the percentage of respondents who think the government aid and relief are completely sufficient declines as the level of education rises. Only 24% of those with higher education agree with the same, while 38.2% of those with lower education think the same. Similarly, 19.5% of those with higher education think the relief and aid is completely insufficient while 17.9% of those with lower education think the same.

The percentage of rural respondents who think the relief policies are sufficient is the highest (39%) followed by urban respondents (31.7%) and semi-urban (30.6%). However, if we look at the total yes figures (combining somewhat sufficient and completely sufficient), both urban and rural respondents have similar percentages of respondents (64.9% urban and 64.1% rural). In addition to this, we also observe that across age groups, those in the older age group are least approving of the relief packages announced by the government (54.9%), while those in the middle age group (45–60) have the highest percentage of respondents who think the relief is sufficient (67.6%). At the same time, around 63% of both freshers (below 25) and young respondents (25–45) think the government’s relief and aid measures are sufficient.

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 questions had a “Don’t Know/Can’t Say” option that respondents could also select. This was 0.9% for Q1 and 5.5% for Q2.

All survey findings and projections are based on the Team CVoter Corona Tracker Economic Battery Wave 3 survey carried out in May 2020 among 18+ adults statewide, including every major demographic. (Sample Size: 1474) 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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