Personal Wellbeing Index: Which groups are the most satisfied during the Coronavirus lockdown?

Team CVoter conducted a series of surveys in December 2019, April 2020 and May 2020 to find out the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) of Indians across the country. The PWI asks respondents about their levels of satisfaction corresponding to different domains in their life such as their standard of living, health, personal relationships, future security and overall satisfaction with life. Respondents rate their levels of satisfaction on a scale of 0 (least satisfied) to 10 (most satisfied) for all domains. Team Polstrat breaks down the changes in overall wellbeing across occupations in India.

Overall, we see that Indians in all occupations reported the highest levels of satisfaction in the first wave in December before the Coronavirus crisis in India, and the lowest levels in wave 2, right when the nation-wide lockdown started. May 4th onwards, the government introduced some relaxation measures in green and orange zones across the country, while the doubling rate of positive infections had also slowed down to 11 days at the time (Doubling rate as of May 13th is 12.2 days). Across occupations, age and social groups we see that in the third wave of the survey we see a sharp return in levels of satisfaction in people. While this “V-shaped” recovery curve in the levels of overall satisfaction is consistent across demographics in the country, the levels of recovery vary.

Which occupation groups report high levels of satisfaction?

Overall the “V-shape” recovery curve of levels of satisfaction are consistent across occupation groups. The highest dip in levels of satisfaction is reported by farmers and labourers, while government employees reported the highest levels of satisfaction in all three waves of the survey. While each group has been broken down to highlight similar economic conditions and hardships faced by them, it should be noted that overall levels of satisfaction for all will be affected by factors such as general fears instilled by the spread of the virus, fear for safety, uncertainty, and others.

Farmers and Labourers

Out of all the occupation groups, we observe that landless agricultural labour (3.29 point decline) and general labour (3.12 point decline) reported the highest decline in levels of satisfaction from the initial shock of the Coronavirus crisis in April. However, for both groups, their satisfaction levels recover substantially in May, perhaps due to government relief policies and measures given to provide them with ration and other necessities.

In April and May, the Finance Ministry announced a relief package, which included cash and social security transfers, cooking gas cylinders, free grains, and withdrawals from provident funds. Cash transfers were announced for senior citizens, widows, farmers (under the PM Kisan scheme). Within the first 10 days of April, the government said it has released Rs 27,281 crore to beneficiaries in cash and social security transfers. Additionally, under the PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana, the government released 12 million tonnes of food grains. As per data from the Finance Ministry, about 2.65 lakh tonnes of food grains have been released to 5.29 crore beneficiaries (April entitlement).

It should be noted that general labourers report a much higher level of satisfaction in May (6.15) than landless agricultural labourers (4.8). Perhaps, this could be attributed to the fact that migrant agricultural workers report a higher level of dissatisfaction with their lives while waiting to go back to their native states.

Government vs Private Sector Employees vs Business Owners

Out of all the occupation groups, government workers report the highest level of satisfaction in all 3 waves of the survey. Their recovery levels are also the fastest, with satisfaction levels in May (8.2) very close to those reported in December 2019 (8.44). Both private-sector employees and business owners report a roughly 1 point fall on the satisfaction index from December to May. Similarly, the dip in satisfaction levels in April (wave 2) was very high for both private-sector employees (2.51 point decline) and business owners (2.32 point decline).

Students, Housewives and Others

Similar to employees in the private sector, business owners, and farmers, Indian housewives report a very sharp decline of 2.7 points from December to April, perhaps due to overall impact on household income due to the lockdown and overall panic about the spread of the virus. Students/Unemployed reported the least decline when compared to other groups of roughly 2 points from December to April. Overall, their levels of satisfaction in May have also increased to 6.98 (difference of 0.62 points pre-Coronavirus).

Which age groups are the most satisfied?

The initial dip in levels of satisfaction as recorded in wave 2 was the highest for those in the middle-aged category (2.62 point decline), followed by young (25–45) age group (2.53 point decline), fresher (below 25) age group (2.44 point decline) and old (60 and above) age group (1.38 point decline). However, in the third wave of the survey, the lowest satisfaction levels were recorded by those in the old age group (6.16). This could perhaps be attributed to the fact that as announced by the WHO, older adults are at a significantly increased risk of severe disease following infection from COVID-19.

Females vs Males: Who has higher satisfaction?

Levels of satisfaction do not vary much by gender in all 3 waves of the survey. In wave 1 before the Coronavirus crisis in December 2019, males reported a 7.40 level of satisfaction, while females reported a 7.45. In wave 2, this declined for both gender groups to 5.04, before rising up again in wave 3 in May. In May, females reported a 6.52 level of satisfaction, which is an overall decline of 0.93 index points, while males reported a 6.48 level of satisfaction, which is an overall decline of 0.92 index points.

Social Groups

Highest levels of satisfaction before the Coronavirus crisis in December are recorded by Others (7.79), followed by Other Backward Classes (OBC) (7.65) and Upper Case Hindus (UCH) (7.55), while lowest is recorded by Sikhs (5.58). In wave 3, the highest levels of satisfaction are reported by Upper Caste Hindus (7.19), Other Backward Classes (OBC) (6.92) and Others (6.51). The only social group that reports a higher level of overall satisfaction in wave 3 (8.11) as compared to before the Coronavirus crisis are Christians (7.47). Muslims also report a decline of about 1.72 index points in overall satisfaction in May as compared to before the Coronavirus crisis. As we see that while the v-shaped recovery curve of satisfaction levels are consistent in demographics across the country, the rate of recovery is not the same for everyone. In our series, about the PWI we will explore all the domains of the index of subjective wellbeing, including health, security, personal relationships, spirituality, connection with the community across all age, gender, social demographics in India.

Read the full infographic in English and Hindi.

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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