88% citizens want MHA to expand its lockdown essentials list and include gadgets, air conditioners, coolers, appliances, office and school supplies

15th May 2020, New Delhi: In a few days, the Government is expected to come out with the guidelines to be followed during the Lockdown 4.0, which will start from 18th May. It is expected that a lot more relaxations will be announced in the latest guidelines and citizens would be prompted to get back to their old lives while following the social distancing mandates. Many consumers on LocalCircles have been demanding the list of essential items to be expanded to cover more items which are important for their day to day life. LocalCircles conducted a survey to get a citizen pulse on the issue. The survey received more than 6,000 votes from people residing in 192 districts of India.

Citizens were asked in case the lockdown has to be extended in some parts of India esp the high virus load districts and/or red zones or a new lockdown has to be introduced in future to contain the spread of COVID-19, what all should be added to the MHA essentials list. In response, 33% said office & school supplies, while 8% said basic gadgets like mobiles, printers, laptops, tablets etc. 4% said white goods & appliances like ACs, refrigerators, coolers etc. 43% said all of these should be added to essentials while 10% said none of these should be added.

88% citizens want MHA to expand its lockdown essentials list and include gadgets, air conditioners, coolers, appliances, office and school supplies

This means that almost 88% citizens want MHA to expand its lockdown essentials list and include gadgets, air conditioners, coolers, appliances, office and school supplies. People in many parts of the country have struggled as temperatures touched 40 degrees and they needed to purchase a cooler or an air conditioner. Similarly, with schools conducting online classes, many needed a computing device for their child to connect from home. These items though may not be needed by everyone still have a lot of demand and according to people must be treated as secondary essentials.

In an earlier poll, citizens were asked for the 14 high virus load districts that are also amongst the red zones with over 500 COVID-19 active cases, what should be the lockdown relaxation approach. These high load districts are Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Pune, Indore, Thane, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Surat, Kolkata, Agra, Hyderabad and Bhopal. In response, 45% said full lockdown should continue for two more weeks in these districts. 19% said lockdown should be significantly relaxed and all offices, markets, businesses to be allowed to operate with social distancing norms, while 35% said lockdown should be somewhat relaxed and only offices at 33% capacity and standalone shops should be permitted to open.

45% citizens in favour of full lockdown to continue for 2 weeks after May 17th in the top 14 high virus load districts

So overall, people are in support of lockdown restrictions continuing in high virus load districts and upto some extent even in the red zones. However, they are clear that a 60 day lockdown must not continue with all these restrictions where they can’t purchase these secondary essentials. Hence, they want the Government to open at the very least delivery of these products by retailers and ecommerce sites. Consumers understand the need for social distancing and even malls being kept shut but delivery of such items must be opened.

LocalCircles will be escalating these findings to key stakeholders in the Central Government and Chief Secretaries of various State Governments so they can be considered for the lockdown approach to be undertaken post May 17th.