On the backdrop of Covid19 lockdown to understand the social, economic and psychological impact on the residents of Pune city, I and my student Abhishek Pandharpure conducted a survey. 

More than 800 people in Pune city area were surveyed by questionnaire. The questionnaire was floated using digital platforms. This survey has been conducted in a time bound manner. We are glad to put our final survey findings in public domain to initiate discourse and debate. People from various backgrounds participated in this survey (including people providing necessary life services) which provided this survey a sample base of wide range. 

The entire scenario of lockdown was unprecedented but the survey outcomes present a positive picture. People in Pune city area have in fact faced this extraordinary situation with a positive attitude. 

Some findings of the survey are mentioned as follows: 

1. Around 43% of our sample size tend to call Covid19 a natural calamity. In the entire world scenario some countries are being blamed for the spread of Covid19, this finding highlight wisdom in people to not to believe in any news until the facts are confirmed. More specifically, if we take into consideration the uncertainty of disaster, its impact and the measures required, this stand sounds logical. However, 42% of our sample size still feels that Covid19 is a world conspiracy. 
2. Secondly, we found out that 92% of our sample size have observed a positive change in terms of improvement in their surrounding environment. Which shows that the Covid lockdown has brought men closer to the nature. 
3. 64% people registered increase in the use of social media platforms during the lockdown. Many people have now started enjoying work from home. 
4. Some people did say that they should have become familiar with the online platforms for transactions. However, most of the people said that during lockdown they did not face any difficulties in their regular transactions. 
5. 69% people in our sample size noted that their sleeping and eating habits did not change during the lockdown. 
6. More than 70% of the people in our sample mentioned that they disliked bombarding 24by7 news channels. This however gives us an insight into the fact that people have only believed in the authenticity of official statements by the government representatives. 

As a researcher, I would like to underline the limitations of this research project. The survey is limited to Urban area and if a similar survey is conduct in the semi-urban or rural areas the findings may vary. We will also have to modify the tool and survey techniques for conducting the survey in such areas. 

Last but not the least, we definitely wish to increase the scope of this survey by conducting it in the entire Maharashtra region. For which we focus on urban, semi-urban and rural areas. We are currently working on the plans regarding the same. The survey has surely opened up a vast range of opportunities where lies the strength of the survey. 

Findings of this survey were covered in Daily Maharashtra Times dated 7th and 8th May 2020. 

– Devyani Deshpande

Resource person (Sociology and Public Administration)