COVID-19 Study
In April 2020, India entered a stringent lockdown in response to rising cases of Covid-19 disease. The economic impact of the lockdown was felt most acutely among India’s poorest communities unable to avail themselves of opportunities to work from home and in the absence of a robust furlough scheme to support wages for daily labourers and other unskilled workers.
To assess . food security and the financial, educational, health- and wellbeing-related impact of the lockdown, Calcutta Rescue (CR) developed a questionnaire to consecutively survey slum community residents in Kolkata. The research protocol was reviewed by the All India Institute Ethical Committee Board, who granted ethical approval in January 2021 (IECCRE/20-21/003). Two research assistants, Mayukh Chakraborty and Pamela Das, led a local team and collected responses from randomly selected participants by telephone between February and April 2021.
Baseline Results demonstrated that most residents had good knowledge, attitudes and practices in mitigating their risk of acquisition of Covid-19. However, results also showed most residents’ income had been severely affected by the lockdown and ensuing economic slowdown, with . Less than half of residents received food support – mainly from NGOs. ,. Schools in India have been closed for a year at the time of survey and our results show that 36% of children have dropped out in this time.
CR aims to collect follow-up data from respondents every three months for the next year. Interim data analysis will take place at these time-points to identify predictors of poorer outcomes in each of the surveys categories in an effort to target interventions more effectively.
Research Leads
Mr Jaydeep Chakraborty
Calcutta Rescue, Kolkata, India
Dr Esther Sulkers
Department of Health Sciences, University Medical Centre, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Dr. Marie-Ange Massiani
Department of medical oncology, Institut Curie, Paris, France
Dr. Marcello Scopazzini
Regional Infectious Diseases Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK
Flavia Hug
Masters in Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland
