Unemployment, corruption, violence, social inequality & coronavirus worry urban Indians most
According to the July wave of the Ipsos What Worries the World global monthly survey, Urban Indians were found to be worried about a host of issues that were seen to be impacting their lives. The issues in the pecking order included, Unemployment (37%), financial and political corruption (29%), crime and violence (26%), poverty and social inequality (22%), coronavirus (20%), climate change (17%) and inflation (16%).
While inflation emerged the top worry of most global citizens, with majority of markets concerned about its impact on their lives.
The markets most worried about inflation included Argentina (65%), Poland (59%), Chile (54%), Turkey (53%), Canada (51%) and the US (51%). And the least worried were India (16%) and Saudi Arabia (13%).
Commenting on the findings, Amit Adarkar, Ipsos India, CEO stated, “For our burgeoning population, job creation still needs to keep pace with demand; also, we continue to reel under the collateral impact of the pandemic that rendered thousands jobless. Then there are other societal issues of corruption, crime, poverty which increase when restrictions ease. We also see the virus reappearing after being dormant for a while. These are some of the worries of the citizens which govt should address and mitigate.”
Ipsos What Worries the World monthly survey tracks public opinion on the most important social and political issues across 27 countries including India and was conducted among 20,022 respondents.
Unemployment wasn’t just a worry in India
Interestingly, unemployment or joblessness wasn’t just a worry among Indians, there were other markets impacted as well. South Africa had 65% respondents worrying about unemployment and Colombia 48%. And the markets where unemployment was way low in the pecking order or almost non-existent included Netherlands (7%), Germany (8%), Hungary (9%), France (12%) and the US.
Poverty and social inequality
Poverty and social inequality were particularly dominant in the markets of Brazil (46%), Turkey (46%) and Hungary (44%). Some of these markets have seen a major impact on their economies due to the coronavirus and travel restriction in these tourist destinations impacting livelihoods.
Crime and violence
Crime and violence concerns were particularly high for Mexico (61%), Chile (60%) and Sweden (60%). Lawlessness, gang warfare and gun culture could be some of the glaring issues these markets would be facing.
Financial and political corruption
This worry was particularly seen in South Africa (54%) and Malaysia (51%).
Coronavirus
Coronavirus worries were seen to be most in Japan (28%), Germany (27%) and Malaysia (24%)
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Top Global Worries
Top worries of global citizens included inflation (38%), poverty and social inequality (33%), crime and violence (26%), unemployment (26%) and financial and political corruption (23%).
India bucks the global trend of pessimism
The survey shows that global citizens were quite downbeat about the future prospects of their country, with at least 2 in 3 (65%) believing their country was on the wrong track. Indians on the contrary were quite optimistic about the future and believed India was moving in the right direction with at least 73% holding this view. The market most upbeat was of Saudi Arabia (90%).
Economic picture
The survey also captured the state of the economy by markets and the markets most bullish were Saudi Arabia (93%), India (77%), Sweden (57%) and Germany (51%). Australia had polarized views (50%). Some of the markets that displayed low confidence in their economies were Argentina (7%), Peru (9%) and Japan (10%).
