PRASHNAM INSIGHT #31
The Print and Prashnam surveyed Indians in rural Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh.
As the Covid pandemic ravages rural India, inadequate medical infrastructure is falling apart in these areas. Many of those who fell to Covid died due to little or near absent medical facilities there. What is the extent of the Covid pandemic and how many have lost lives in rural North India?
Prashnam decided to survey the rural area of 6 Hindi speaking states and ask the following two specific questions.
Q1: Has anyone in your family or neighbourhood died due to Corona in the last 3 months?
a: If Yes you lost someone in your family or neighbourhood to Covid
b: If no, you have personally not lost anyone in your family or neighbourhood to Covid
c: If you do not wish to answer
Q2: Who do you hold responsible for your loss?
a: If you think Modi sarkar is responsible
b: If you think Rajya sarkar is responsible
c: If you think this is destiny
Every sixth person has lost someone in his family or neighbourhood
17% of the respondents have lost someone in their family or neighbourhood. The percentages across these states are fairly consistent with the exception of Madhya Pradesh (21 per cent).
41% of those who lost someone holds Modi sarkar responsible
Of those who lost someone to Covid, 41 per cent of them consider that Modi sarkar is responsible for their loss. In Rajasthan, only 31per cent of the respondents feels so, while 46 per cent of them in Uttar Pradesh feel the same.
Respondent profile
14,881 adult Indians responded to this survey. They were from 6 states - Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh belonging to 229 districts. 70 per cent were male and 30 per cent female. 52 per cent were youth (<40 years), 36 per cent middle-aged and 12 per cent seniors (>60).
Read the full report in The Print here
The raw response data is available here.