NEW DELHI: The percentage of people hoarding ration and medicine for more than three months has massively increased post lockdown, due the persistent uncertainty amid the coronavirus situation.
According to the IANS-CVoter Covid-19 Tracker conducted between March 16 and July 22, no one used to collect the essentials for more than one week prior to the lockdown. However, the purchasing pattern and behaviour of the customers changed drastically after it was imposed.
The poll shows the level of preparedness among the people. Interestingly, four months after the nation-wide shutdown, 54.3 per cent people now have ration, medicine or money for these items for more than three weeks at home, while 44.7 per cent have it for less than three weeks.
If the data is broken down into weeks, 5 per cent have ration, medicine and money for three weeks, 27.7 per cent have hoarded it for a month, while 21.6 per cent have it for more than a month.
On the other side, 12.2 per cent people have the items for less than a week, 19 per cent have it for one week and 13.5 per cent for two weeks.
The IANS-Cvoter survey was conducted on more than 1,000 randomly-selected respondents across 1,000 assembly segments from March 16 to July 22. The respondents were interviewed in 10 different languages.
The data holds importance at a time the country is facing the wrath of the deadly virus, which has claimed over 30,000 lives and infected as many as 12 lakh Indians. India has also logged the world’s third-largest case load, after the US and Brazil.
