As coronavirus infections began to rise across the country in the third week of March, 2020, the central government enforced stern measures to curb people’s movement, to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. With this, India’s mobility to certain places recorded a significant shift in the month of March and April, according to data from Google’s mobility report.
Over the months, as lockdown restrictions were eased, data showed changes in mobility trends.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for a one day ‘Janta Curfew’ on March 22, asking people to stay at home and to thank the frontline workers for their self-less service and efforts. Following which, on March 25, 2020, India - a country with a population of over 1.3 billion - entered into one of the strictest lockdowns ever experienced across continents as a preventive measure to tackle the spread of the coronavirus disease.
The lockdown restricted people’s movement all over the country, with limited operability only for essential and emergency services over the next two months. This saw a shift in people’s mobility patterns from the usual, as they were confined to their homes. Later, beginning in the month of June, phase-wise reopening was permitted outside the containment zones by the central government. The following months saw a gradual reopening of places with certain restrictions and limitations.
Based on Google’s COVID-19 Community Mobility Report data, Moneycontrol looked at how India’s mobility - to certain places of usual visit such as workplaces, residence, grocery/pharmacy, public transport, retail/recreation places and parks - changed over a period of time, beginning with the lockdown in March and later with the gradual relaxation in restrictions in the following months, ending December 2020.
The mobility report measures changes comparing to a baseline value before the pre-COVID lockdown (January 3 – February 6 2020) period.With restrictions coming into place, movement towards places of work dropped 72 percent - from the baseline - on March 25, the lowest recorded. Likewise, peoples' movement towards transit stations - such as bus and metro stations - fell 70 percent in the initial days of the lockdown as things came to a standstill with restrictions on public transport.
Though there has been a gradual improvement with relaxations and the opening up of the economy, mobility towards workplaces is yet to return to pre-COVID levels, as many have adapted to work from home (WFH). Mobility towards public transport has seen an improvement in the last few weeks of December, though it continues to be below the baseline.
The last week of March witnessed a surge (30 percent and above) in movement towards residential places, as people travelled to their homes with the call for a nationwide lockdown. This continued over the next few weeks as swathes of people migrated to their home towns with many even walking for hundreds of kilometres due to lack of transport facilities. The trend changed in the following months as things settled, and are now above 10 percent compared to the baseline ending December 29, as against the high recorded in March and April.
Mobility towards grocery stores and pharmacies - including places like supermarkets, food warehouses, farmer markets and specialty food shops - saw a steep fall with the onset of restrictions, dropping 76 percent on March 22, the lowest recorded.
However, with the opening-up of the markets, this segment recorded the highest recovery, now nearly 10 percent above the baseline at the end of December last year.
The lockdown had led to a change in consumer behaviour patterns from selective buying - due to future uncertainties - to making use of digital platforms to shop across the board from groceries and vegetables to healthcare products. With many losing out on jobs, small and medium businesses struggling, consumer spending also took a hit. It is forecasted to have contracted by 12.6 percent in 2020, with an expected recovery this year.
Retail and recreation, which shows visits to restaurants, cafes, shopping centres, theme parks, museums, libraries and cinemas, reported the maximum drop in mobility- of 87 percent from the baseline in April 2020 -as compared to other segments. In spite of the relaxations, the mobility trend for this segment has restored to -27 percent from the baseline, as of December 29.
One of the possible reasons for lower recovery could be ongoing restrictions and limited operability in certain places of visits, keeping social distancing in view, as well as apprehensions ingrained among masses with regards to the spread of infectious disease.
Likewise, visits to parks - which includes public beaches, marinas, plazas, national parks, public gardens - too had reported a fall of 68 percent from the baseline in April. It has now climbed to -15 percent, as on December 29.