Only 1 in 2 urban Indians comfortable about returning to workplace: Ipsos

According to the new wave of the Ipsos COVID 19 survey, only 1 in 2 Indians (50%) are comfortable about returning  to workplace amid corona virus pandemic. At the same time, when it comes to the children, majority of urban Indians were seen to be uncomfortable about allowing kids to resume school – 45%  were uncomfortable, 18% were keen to postpone it by a few weeks, and only 37% claimed to be comfortable.     

“Indians are moving forward with utmost caution. So, while re-opening is the next logical step, Indians are gearing up, to resume work but will like to defer attending of school by kids. COVID-19 is highly infectious and has no vaccine for its prevention and the drug for its cure; it’s understandable for parents to feel protective. Adults can still take the necessary precautions and of course they are the bread winners,” said Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India.

Global findings

Majority in 9 out of 16 countries are comfortable with returning to workplace but only two countries are comfortable with kids back at school.

More people say they are comfortable going back to their place of work in the coming weeks, but they don’t feel the same about allowing their children to return to school amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest Ipsos survey.

In a survey nearly 16,000 people conducted from May 7 to 10, a majority of people in 9 out of 16 countries say they are comfortable going to their workplace in the coming weeks with those in South Korea (82%), Australia (71%), China (65%), Russia (63%) and Germany (58%) at the top of the list.

The countries most uncomfortable with returning to the workplace were Brazil and Spain (48%). In fact, one in five people (20%) in Brazil say they definitely would not do this in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, respondents most divided on this were in South Africa with a 3 percentage-point difference between those that were comfortable and those that were not, followed by Spain and Japan (4), the United Kingdom and Mexico (7).

In terms of allowing children to return to school, a majority of people in Italy and South Africa (56%), Canada and Spain (53%) are not comfortable with doing this in the coming weeks, while more people in 10 other countries feel the same way.

People in Brazil were most against this with more than two in five respondents (44%) saying they definitely wouldn’t do this in the next few weeks, followed by Japan (30%), and the United States (28%).

There are only two countries where people are more comfortable with allowing their children to return to school in the coming weeks – Australia (59%) and South Korea (49%).

The countries most divided on this were some of the world’s biggest emerging markets including China with 3 points separating those that were comfortable from those that are not, followed by Russia (6) and India (8).