Coronavirus vaccine: 44 percent of rural households willing to spend money to get a Covid-19 shot, reveals survey

A recent survey spanning what rural households understand about the Coronavirus vaccine shows that they are willing to spend money to get vaccination. As part of the survey taken by Gaon Connection titled ‘The Rural Report 3: Covid-19 Vaccine and Rural India’, a total of 2200 rural households spread across in the states-Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Overall, the survey encompassed a total of 6040 rural households spread across 16 states and one Union Territory across the country.

The rapid survey was conducted face to face by the media platform with the members of the rural households between December 1 and December 10 on the issue of awareness about Coronavirus vaccine, the Indian Express reported. As part of the survey, the media platform asked people what they thought about the Covid-19 vaccine, whether they are willing to spend out of their own pocket to get vaccinated. Among other questions posed in the survey, the people were asked whom they would prefer to get vaccinated first in their family and whether they trusted several vaccine candidates claiming success in stopping the spread of Coronavirus.

Asked if they were ready to loosen their purse string to get a Covid-19 vaccine shot, about 44 percent of the respondents responded in affirmative while 36 percent respondents showed their unwillingness to pay for the vaccine. About 20 percent respondents did not say anything in response to the question of paying for their vaccine. However, about 66 percent of the respondents who were willing to pay out of their own pockets said that they wanted the vaccine to be priced below Rs 500, according to the Gaon connection website.

The maximum of 29.8 respondents from the West Zone(including Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh) said they wanted themselves to get vaccinated first followed by 28 per cent of the respondents who said they wanted their old parents to get vaccinated at the earliest. In contrast to the West Zone, respondents in the East, North-East and South Zone however overwhelmingly preferred that their old parents be vaccinated first. The respondents from the North Zone on the other hand responded by saying that their children should be the first one to get vaccinated.

The survey also tried to understand whether the rural populace of the country was aware about the development in the manufacturing of Coronavirus vaccine in the country. The survey showed that about 85 percent respondents in the North zone were aware about the developments related to the Coronavirus vaccine while least number of respondents in the West zone at 61 percent were aware about the Covid-19 vaccine related development.