61 per cent of Indians face mental health issues due to Covid-19 lockdown: Study

Covid-19 global crisis has given rise to the new normal way of surviving, both personally and professionally. With individuals restricted within the four walls of their homes, mental health has taken a severe hit.

According to the Rebooting 2020: A Story of Covid-19 and Shifting Perceptions survey by The Mavericks India, 61 per cent Indians are experiencing mental health-related issues due to the lockdown, uncertainty, and looming financial crisis.

According to the study, Gen-Z and millennials have been impacted the most with 27 per cent of Gen-Z and 19 per cent of millennials expressing that this crisis has taken a significant toll on their mental health.

Furthermore, women are struggling more than men as their workload has increased significantly with them carrying multiple responsibilities without any assistance from domestic helpers, the study noted.

Work-from-home a new normal?

46 per cent of corporate executives (CXOs) surveyed believe that working remotely will be the most significant change in the post-COVID world. This lockdown has forced all industries to explore innovative ways to get their workforce to operate remotely. Given the success of the forced experiment, many CXOs are exploring options to get a major portion of their workforce to work from home for a longer period of time post-COVID, or permanently in some cases.

On the contrary, the workforce is longing to get back to working from the office with 75 per cent Indians finding WFH very challenging and further blurring the boundaries between work and personal lives.

Indian economy’s road to recovery - a bleak future

The study revealed that 90 per cent of CXOs expect the recovery to be slow and painful and this is likely to be reflected heavily in their decision-making as they try and navigate the turbulent times.

A whopping 72 per cent of Indians do not expect the economy to recover in less than a year with 26 per cent being further pessimistic, not expecting the recovery before two years.

Around 70 per cent of Indians and 79 per cent of CXOs are supportive of the Centre’s response in handling the crisis with the only exception being, lack of planning and implementation in accommodating the plight of migrant workers.

Commenting on the impact of Covid-19 lockdown and crisis, Chetan Mahajan, Founder & CEO of The Mavericks stated in an official statement: “Reputation, transparency, and trust will be the new currencies of the post-COVID era. Brands that are living their purpose and are conscious about building sustainable business models will enjoy preference and will recover faster. Furthermore, digital transformation will change the storytelling game and authentic change the storytelling game, and authentic influencers will become the key carriers of the Brand story.”

To arrive at these insights, Mavericks Research surveyed in April-May, to gauge the collective behavior of the Indian society amid the current Covid-19 crisis while understanding the expectations of people from various aspects, once the world is back to normal. Current attitude, anticipated trends, and future predictions are among some of the areas where we garnered insights.

600 responses were collected through this survey via an online survey tool, and key findings were generated based on consideration of the unfiltered sample dataset and filtering the data by gender, age bracket, and occupation. Approximately 210 respondents belong to a community of CXOs or senior company executives/leaders.

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