Societal impact of novel corona virus (COVID ̶ 19 pandemic) in India

Bhargabi Kundu a and Dipak Bhowmik b*

a
School of Social Sciences, Netaji Subhas Open University, DD-26, Sector-I, Salt Lake
City, Kolkata - 700064, West Bengal, India
b
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208016, Uttar
Pradesh, India

Abstract
The whole world is facing a big crisis due to the spreading of newly detected novel corona

virus 2019 (COVID ̶ 19). A huge number of people have already been infected since last 4

months. People are thinking about the prevention of infected individuals, vaccine, medical

treatment, and other precautions. The governments of most countries including India have

already taken several measures like lockdown, social distancing, closure of schools, colleges,

religious gatherings etc., to reduce its spreading. India is a developing country and most of

the people are having below the standard income. So the lockdown in India has affected the

poor and middle income group people. In this article, we will discuss in detail on the societal

effects in India due to COVID ̶ 19 pandemic. The effects of health, essential commodities,

Indian economy, domestic violence, politics, and psychology on society due to COVID ̶ 19

will be elaborated in detail. The aim of this research is to have a clear understanding of the

present societal scenario during lockdown, which may help the government for better

management and prevention of the disease.

Keywords: COVID ̶ 19, social impacts, Indian economy, politics, violence on women.

*Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected]

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Introduction

The whole world has a long history of epidemic diseases. Most of the countries suffered from

several pandemic situations since more than 100 years like Spanish flu, influenza, small pox,

cholera, swine flu, SARS, H7N9 etc., which caused many impacts on the society [1-5]. The

coronavirus pandemic started as a simple outbreak in December 2019 from Wuhan, China

and it has now become a global threat within 4 months [6]. As most countries were not

prepared for this, now it has become very difficult to prevent the spreading. Therefore, it has

been affecting several people throughout the world. The health systems have already been

overburdened due to the huge loads of corona infected people. It has been reported by this

time (25/04/2020) more than 2.8 million cases and over 1.9 lacs deaths worldwide due to

COVID ̶ 19 [6,7]. The governments from most of the countries have already implemented

several protocols in order to reduce the impacts of corona virus spreading such as social

distancing, closure of schools, colleges, universities, airports, restaurants, shopping malls etc.,

where the gatherings are most inevitable [8]. Most of the citizens are prohibited to leave their

homes except the healthcare workers, police, and the workers involved with other emergency

services. This is consequently affecting the several impacts on society like major economic

downturn, international stock market slowed down, health system overburdened, poor people

starvation, and many employees are left jobless. Many scientists from medical science

background are trying to invent vaccine for preventing corona virus [9], whereas the

researchers from other community are interpreting and modelling the spreading to understand

the quantum of this epidemic [10-13]. The impacts on socio-economic effect due to COVID ̶

19 also need to be understood as any epidemic diseases have a long history of societal

impacts [1-5]. Many developed countries like USA, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain have

already been handling the critical situation. India is not also exception of this. Being a

developing country with dense and huge population, India will be affected in a large scale

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both from economical background as well as many societal impacts. The schematic of the

corona virus spreading and how it is affecting on the society worldwide starting from

December, 2019 to April, 2020 is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1: The schematic of corona virus spreading throughout the world and India starting from

Wuhan, china. The societal impacts of corona virus in India are also schematically shown.

In this research article, we investigate the societal impacts due to newly spreading

novel corona virus in India. The motivation of this research is to provide a better

understanding to the government in order to improve the management in our society due to

3
the outbreaks of infectious disease. We have taken the information and data from several

journal articles as referred, government documents, authentic newspapers, media, and

discussions with experts from different fields during this investigation. We have discussed

with people from several categories over telecommunication to understand their psychology

and feedback about lockdown for this pandemic situation. The several effects on society like

health, economy, essential commodities, politics, domestic violence etc., are presented in this

article. In addition to these, some positive impacts and preventive steps to come out from this

situation are also discussed in light of the present scenario.

Social impacts of coronavirus

The impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID ̶ 19) pandemic are influencing enormously

on the social life and the economic activities in almost every country in the world. The

spreading and its preventions are being discussed throughout the world. However, people

have been affected from several angles in their daily life in addition to the corona virus threat.

COVID ̶ 19 has a large impact on society in many developed countries like USA, Italy,

Germany, France etc. India being a developing country and not having sufficient

infrastructures, lockdown has seized the sleep of night of many people. The lockdown was

announced on 25th March in India and people were not prepared for this. The several impacts

on society in terms of health, economy, poverty, transportation, tourism etc. will be discussed

below.

1. Impact on health

Impacts of any infectious disease on health sectors are most straightforward as it directly

influences the society. The health systems of many developed countries like Italy, Germany,

UK, USA etc., have already been overburdened due to COVID ̶ 19 pandemic. As the health

system of India is not so well compared to some developed countries, the healthcare workers

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are facing difficulties in every time. Especially the rural cities are facing more difficulties

than urban areas due to lack of health care infrastructure such as hospitals, sufficient beds,

ventilators. Only 28% of our populations in urban areas are being served by the 74% of the

doctors, whereas 72% of our populations in rural areas are being served by 26% of the

doctors [14]. The doctor to people ratio in India is very less. According to the data of

National Health Profile-2019, there are only 0.53 hospital beds per 1000 population in India

[15]. Even there is a huge shortage of N95 masks and PPE for the health care workers. Still

the front liners are struggling hard to fight this pandemic situation. By 25th April 2020, the

virus has been spread to almost 210 countries and in India an increasing number of around

25000 people have been infected already with death of 775 people [7]. This is affecting the

other emergency patients like the patients suffering from cancer, kidney dialysis, pregnant

women due to the shortage of medicines, unavailability of the health service etc. Due to the

limited transportation and production of medicine, there has been shortage of some important

medicines and sanitary pads especially in the small cities and rural areas. Besides that, some

people are behaving in-human to those health workers who are battling for us in this

pandemic situation. In some areas, health care workers have been asked to leave their houses

by their landlords as they are taking care of corona infected people. However, our

government has taken needful steps after those incidents.

2. Impacts on essential commodities and transportation

Essential commodities and transportation are two different things, but connected with each

other. Though the government has given full relaxation to continue the selling of essential

commodities such as foods, groceries, medicines during the full lockdown, still people are

facing shortage of some items because of the transportation service. Some people are facing

the extreme shortage of medicine and grocery due to the excessive storage of those items by

some selected people for panic whether they will get those items during lockdown. However,

5
the government is always assuring common people not to panic for essential things. Some

shops are selling essentials items at much higher rates than normal price. Now India’s top

online groceries have restored operations in larger cities, but due to lack of workers, delivery

is still unavailable in rural areas. Several E-groceries systems like Big Basket and e-

commerce like Flipkart and Amazon notified consumers to expect delayed deliveries in

remote cities due to transportation service. As the economy fluctuates, 35% of sellers predict

that their sales will be decreased due to consumer’s financial situation, supply chain

disruptions and product shortages. In this coronavirus pandemic situation, from the fear of

infection, so many people are avoiding in-store shopping and this may increase a sudden

demand of e-commerce as many consumers turn to online shopping to avoid in-store

shopping.

3. Impact on Indian Economy

The most important impact is the effect on economy due to COVID ̶ 19. It has already

affected world strong economic country USA [16]. Indian economy will be badly affected for

this coronavirus pandemic situation. Supply chains have been disrupted for the lockdown

restriction throughout the country. Various private industries such as airlines, restaurants,

hotels, multiplex etc., are closed and they are deducting salaries or even terminating their

employees [17]. The economic analysts have estimated that the lockdown may have cost the

Indian economy 7-8 lacs crores during 21 days only. It will affect the GDP loss in the

economy. Major companies have temporarily suspended some factories across the country.

Entertainment Management Association estimated losses at around Rs.3000 crore because of

the cancellations of conferences and big shows [17]. Majorities of employees from private

institutions are going to lose their job. From the third week of March, e-commerce services

like Flipkart and Amazon have stopped their non-essential products in India; even the e-

groceries like BigBasket and Grofers have restricted their services. There is a large impact on

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film industry also. Film releasing dates have been postponed to future dates across the world;

the global box office is dropped by billions of dollars [15]. As the government is mainly

helping poor people, middle class self-employed persons are suffering a lot in this lockdown.

The government has already announced a huge package in this situation, which will affect the

overall economy.

4. Impact on poor people

The poor people are always most sufferers in any critical situation in India. As most of the

people in India are not having fixed monthly income, they have been in a big trouble. Many

migrant workers who work in different states are spending critical time outside their home

without any income. Many workers are suffering from starvation. However, government has

initiated the rationing system to those people also, but still all the workers are not getting

sufficient ration. As per the United Labor body warning, about 400 million people working in

informal system are at risk of falling deeper into poverty due to the coronavirus crisis [18].

This will affect many people and leave them as jobless.

5. Domestic violence

One of the most unexpected things is the domestic violence even in this pandemic situation.

The domestic violence mainly on women is very common if we see the report of National

Commission for Women (NCW) [19]. However, it is increased in a large number during this

ongoing lockdown situation. Not only in India but also in many other countries, the domestic

violence has been reported at a large number mainly on women [20].

In India, According to the report of the National Commission for Women (NCW), a 45%

increased number of domestic violence was found in just 25 days. In the first week of March,

the total number of complaints from women was 116 which were increased to 257 in the final

week. NCW have registered 587 complaints of domestic violence between 23rd March and

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16th April [21]. NCW chief Rekha Sharma said, “Domestic violence cases have doubled than

what it was before the lockdown. The cases of domestic violence are high in Uttar Pradesh,

Bihar, Haryana and Punjab” [21]. However, the real scenario may be more dangerous as

many women from rural areas are even scared of complaining and also they do not have the

access to register a complaint during lockdown.

6. Impact on politics

Any pandemic situation always influences the politics both internationally and locally [22-

25]. In another way, it can also be said that the political decisions play a major role for

preventing any epidemic disease. The COVID ̶ 19 pandemic has affected the political systems

of many countries like suspensions of legislative and parliamentary activities, isolation and

deaths of many politicians, postponed of elections etc [22]. This has also affected the

international political relation among the leaders [26]. In India, the legislative assembly and

parliament, where the discussions about common people are made, have been suspended.

Several elections have already been postponed for COVID ̶ 19. People have been

complaining about the distribution of essential commodities from government. However, the

government is trying to do their best to help the poor people.

7. Psychological impact

The novel coronavirus is causing fear, stress and anger among the people after spreading

rapidly across the world. As senior citizens are at a high risk, a small lack of negligence on

them can cause a severe casualty. The family visits have been stopped by the authority in old-

age homes, which brings loneliness, fear, and anxiety in old-age homes. In this pandemic

situation, with increasing number of rumors, older adults are being more stressed about their

near ones. While a rise of fear and anxiety is probable during this pandemic, there is a chance

of increasing self-harming possibility also among people with mental health issues. It was

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seen during the 2003 SARS epidemic that there was an increase of suicidal rate among older

adults above the age of 65 years old [27]. The recent study by William Gardner et al.,

elaborates the risk factors of elderly people and their caretaking staffs who are at long-term

care (LTC) facilities [28]. They have also suggested that elderly people should be given

priority to prevent the spread of this pandemic among them.

8. Impact on tourism

Currently tourism is one of the most affected sectors, which directly affects the economy of

the country. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) have informed that the

coronavirus pandemic could cut 50 million jobs in the global travel and tourism industry [29].

This impact depends on how long the pandemic lasts, but according to the report of the

WTTC, Asia is expected to be the most affected continent [29]. The airlines and cruise ships

will be more impacted than hotels. In Indian tourism, the COVID ̶ 19 pandemic could render

3.8 crore people jobless and run into loss of thousands of crores of rupees [30].

9. Some positive impacts on society

Lockdown has been given a golden opportunity for people who hardly got time to spend with

their families. The lockdown led to people working from home, spending more time with

their parents, spouse, and children. They can teach their children to develop responsibilities,

involving them in household chores since the helpers are not coming. Besides that, as the

COVID ̶ 19 pandemic spreads around the world, the air pollution is reducing due to

lockdown. Animals are getting space in this world during this lockdown situation as most of

the people are staying at home. Among the major negative impacts, it is a good sign for us

that researchers are working hard for vaccine against corona virus. We hope we will get this

vaccine very soon. This will give a new learning for both researchers as well as governments

to combat any future pandemic.

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Discussions

Most of countries are following the same protocols like lockdown, isolation of some people

having travel history, contact with corona infected people etc. In addition to these,

government should take care of the health infrastructure such as increasing hospital beds,

ventilators, isolation wards etc. The rural areas may be in more danger if there is any

infection. So, the special vigilance may be taken on those areas to monitor the social

distancing, gatherings etc. To control the shortage issue of essential commodities, few steps

may be taken like the selling of every essential product may be restricted to a limited quantity

to every individual. As the domestic violence has become the most unexpected thing in this

lockdown condition, some officers may be deployed to focus on these complaints only,

especially the village areas should be in the more priority. As the risk factors among children

and old people are more, they should be taken special care. Special counselling may also be

done mainly for old people to reduce the panic. Though our government is doing their best by

helping the poor people, they should also look into the matter of salary deduction and job

termination mainly in private sectors, as a huge number of people are expecting so.

Summary and conclusion

This research shows, in detail, the social impacts of COVID ̶ 19 till now for lockdown in

India. We have discussed the several societal impacts like health, economy, essential

commodities, domestic violence, politics, psychology, poor people, tourism etc. for the novel

corona virus spreading. Note that the results and discussions in this article are based on

specific thresholds, information available in the literature, and interaction with several

individuals from different fields. So, some points may be overlooked in this article. We have

also neither intentionally and unintentionally tried to criticize any government policy, steps

nor given any political views. Nevertheless, the results still provide an informative collection

10
of several factors, which have been affected due to this pandemic situation. The preparation

and effectiveness of combatting any infectious diseases are very much dependent on the

quality and amount of information available to the government. Our research in this situation

may be helpful to the government for better management against COVID ̶ 19 pandemic in

India as research on the societal impacts of any infectious diseases play a key role for the

prevention of epidemic disease.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all individuals who have shared their views on the effects of lockdown for

COVID ̶ 19 during the research. We are specially grateful to Dr. Ananta Kundu for

discussions and giving his valuable suggestions. One of the authors Dr. Dipak Bhowmik

acknowledges Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur under Ministry of Human Resource

Development (MHRD), Govt. of India for financial support.

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