During lockdowns, 98% Amdavadis combat stress and loneliness with ‘Real Relationships’: MyGate Trust Circle Report. Frequent lockdowns have been imposed to manage the spread of Covid-19. Besides human and economic crisis, the coronavirus disease has also resulted in a social crisis. Social isolation is attacking societies at their core resulting in loneliness and anxiety.
During such times, we rely on our most trusted circle of relationships for support. MyGate conducted a national ‘Trust Circle’ survey to understand the impact of these changes on the ‘Trust Circle’ of an individual. 98% of Amdavadis acknowledged the need to build Real Relationships (inter-personal connect) to combat stress and anxiety while only 95.56% in Pune, 95.50% in the north-western city Jaipur and 79.03% in Mumbai felt the same.
The psychological impact has been devastating across age groups nationally (over 80%), however, it has highly affected Gen Z (90%) and women (90%) more. Interestingly, 97.17% Amdavadis now are more likely to be dependent of their neighbours as their immediate ‘Trust Circle’ as compared to pre-covid times and 99.19% acknowledged that their relationship and dependence on neighbours, the local vendors and support staff (watchman, delivery boy, and maids) has improved in this phase.
99.61% respondents in Ahmedabad affirmed the statement ‘My ‘Trust Circle’ has shifted to include people in my neighbourhood whom I am likely to interact with every day’.
Commenting about the report, Abhishek Kumar, COO and Co-founder, MyGate, said, “We all are surviving through tough times and the importance of ‘Trust Circle’ and ‘Real Relationships’ has come to the forefront like any time before. It is interesting to note that Amdavadis strongly felt the need of ‘Real Relationships’ to combat stress more than their western counterpart like 95.56% in Pune, 95.50% in Jaipur and 79.03% in Mumbai. As many as 97.17% respondents in Ahmedabad acknowledged improved connect and dependability on neighbourhood, clearly defining what they are going through and the changing preferences. Gladly technology came to rescue, be it to stay connected, address community requirements, help the larger circle in need and solutions like MyGate evolved and became more relevant than ever before.”
Deep diving further, the report also highlighted that the neighbourhood people ranked the highest in preference list (37.50%) as compared to relatives (26.21%), close friends (25.00%) and technology (11.29%) for any help or information locally.
Unlike other western cities like Mumbai, Pune and even the north-western city Jaipur who are more inclined towards close friends, residents of Ahmedabad ranked neighbourhood people as number one preference (34.68%) for a comfortable shift to a new society followed by close friends (30.65%). 68.15% of the respondents also affirmed that they trust their neighbours more while leaving house keys for some time as compared to a friend nearby (16.13%) or the security guard (12.50%).
Furthermore, kindness of Amdavadi’s also came out in the forefront for the help and support they offered to their support staff including maid, watchmen – over 94.76% respondents either supported them with full grocery or full/part salary. As the world marks 200 million cases of corona cases and over 4.26 million deaths, of people from co-workers to friends and families, Indian inching towards the third wave, importance of staying connected together has become even more critical.
An in-depth research, MyGate Trust Circle has covered 2,867 Indians of all ages from across Tier-1 and Tier -2 cities, namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune. The study is an attempt from MyGate to understand the impact of the pandemic on people’s attitude towards their immediate surroundings.
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