88% in Chennai want lockdown to stay, finds IIT Madras Survey

CHENNAI: In spite of staying under lockdown for nearly 100 days, forced by the still raging Covid-19 pandemic, a majority of Chennai residents want the restrictions to stay in some form, a study has found.

In the online sample survey, conducted by IIT Madras across the country including in Chennai, 88% of the respondents in the city including government employees, private employees, retired people and housewives said they wanted the lockdown to continue, those engaged in business and trade were against it.
As far as the intense lockdown is concerned, 38% of Chennaiites wanted it to continue against 54% for the rest of Tamil Nadu. While 50% of the city’s residents wanted the lockdown to stay with minimal restrictions, 12% said it had to be lifted completely. In other states, about 37% wanted an intense lockdown, 49% were in favour of a general lockdown with more relaxations and 13% wanted all restrictions to go.
The survey by IIT-M’s department of management studies on the lockdown’s impact and effectiveness was taken by 3,136 respondents - 46.6% from Chennai, 16.9% from the rest of Tamil Nadu and 36.5% are from other states.
A high 51.1% said the lockdown was moderately effective, while 21.3% said it was very effective. Just 5.5% thought it was ineffective. “Despite saying the lockdown is only moderately effective, a large majority wanted it to continue in some form. It shows that they are giving preference to health rather than livelihood,” said Professor A Thillai Rajan of the department of management studies.
While 45% of entrepreneurs and 50% of job-seekers said they were affected professionally, 48% of retired people and 34% of home makers said they were least affected. “While those with stable income in the public and private sector prefer lockdown, a higher proportion of entrepreneurs want it to end. This indicates that risk of livelihood has been larger for entrepreneurs as compared to risk of disease,” he said.
People seem cautious on returning to normalcy. Except for entrepreneurs, others want some form of the lockdown to continue, Professor Thillai Rajan said.
Researchers said they were surprised that youngsters preferred an intensive lockdown, while those aged 55 and above wanted a general lockdown in place with minimal restrictions. While 54% of those below 25 said they were affected professionally, only 37% of those aged above 55 said they were affected.