Compliance to wear masks falls drastically during festival season: LocalCircles

Mask and social distancing compliance have hit new lows with Diwali shopping, socialising and events at their peak, LocalCircles found in a survey. Mask compliance dropped drastically from 13% of citizens surveyed rating compliance high last month to only 2% rating it high now. Social distancing compliance dropped by 50% from 6% rating compliance high in September to 3% in October. Further, only 16% of the citizens who travelled in October say mask compliance is effective, while 96% say social distancing is not effective during travel. People reportedly said that even large airports like Delhi and Mumbai are non-compliant on social distancing

"A large majority of people seem to have forgotten about the masking and social distancing norms. Properly worn masks are getting harder to spot in public places in tier 2 districts while a mask itself has become a rarity in tier 3, 4 and rural India," the statement said.

LocalCircles conducted the study to determine how people comply with masking and social distancing protocols in cities and districts during the festive season. It also aims to find compliance levels during travel. The survey received more than 39,000 responses from 20,000 unique citizens located in 366 districts of India. 

47% of respondents were from Tier 1 districts, 30% from Tier 2 districts, and 23% were located in India's Tier 3, 4 and rural districts. 65% of respondents were men while 35% were women.

Masking has significantly decreased as 15% said there is "no compliance at all", 34% said "0-30%" of people are compliant", 36% said "30-60%", 8% said "60-90%", and 2% said "more than 90% are compliant". About 13% of citizens observed high mask compliance at the end of September, which fell to 2% at the end of October 2021. 

Further, only 7% of citizens observed "no compliance at all" in September, which has increased to 15% in a month. In addition, the survey sought 9,999 responses from citizens about mask norms when they travelled using flights/airports, trains/railway stations or bus/bus. In response, 4% of citizens said there was "no compliance at all". While 34% said "0-30%" people were wearing masks properly, 27% said "30-60%", 15% said "60-90%", and 16% said "more than 90%"- wore masks. 

"In the majority of bus stands, stations, metro and railway stations, the adherence to social distancing norms has become extremely low. Even in top airports, passengers can be seen a few inches away from each other in security and boarding queues, all of which can be managed much more effectively. Hundreds of complaints have been received about Delhi and Mumbai airports that there is no social distancing and worse, no effort from authorities to implement the same," said the statement.