COVID-19 and the socio-cultural life of Kolkata: An empirical study of life management process of the people in Kolkata during the pandemic

Abstract

Our planet witnessed a severe health hazard for the last two years as the COVID-19 transmitted throughout the world. It has massively shaken the health infrastructure of all the nations. As the vaccines were not available, the whole world was suffering from mass demise and all the nations went for lockdown to control the transmission of the new virus. People’s movement and mingle were restricted, all the socio-economic activities were almost shut down. Kolkata was not an exception. As the health infrastructure of India was quite weak, India went for a strict lockdown, which started form March, 2020 to control the first wave. We experimented with a survey from April, 2020 to September, 2020 on online mode to gauge the socio-economic and cultural aspects of the commoners inhabiting Kolkata or very near to Kolkata. We found how the income, savings, borrowings and the expenditure pattern got disrupted at the household level. It is also found from the survey, how the unorganized sector faced a mass deprivation during the period. An age wise analysis of the psychological disturbance was also undertaken. It is also found that people at the micro level tried to join their hands to fight this unexpected hazard.