Indians donated 43% more during Covid pandemic in 2020: Survey

Ground Report | New Delhi: Indians during Covid pandemic; The number of average individual donations in India has increased by 43% during the COVID-19 pandemic, says a report by Charity Aid Foundation (CAF), a global non-profit, released on September 24. The report is based on a survey conducted on 2,000 Indians living in different cities. More than 60% of those surveyed said governments and businesses should have donated more during the pandemic, Indiaspend reported.

Indians during Covid pandemic

The India Giving Report, 2021 looked at people's daily donations, whether in the form of money, in the form of goods, or in the form of social causes, and found that 85% of people contributed to society's "direct response" to the pandemic. Two out of three people made donations or social contributions in the form of money or goods and three out of 10 gave financial assistance to their friends, relatives, or neighbors which is a tradition in India.

According to the study, the average donation amount in the last year has increased from Rs 10,941 in 2019 to Rs 15,628 in 2020. Other trends observed in the study saw an increase in donations to local organizations rather than international ones. Prior to this report, India had seen the biggest jump in CAF's World Giving Index 2021 place. In this index, India had risen from 82 to 14 in the year 2020 at an average of 10 years. This jump reflects an increasing trend in individual donations in India, said Avijit Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, CAF India. (Indians during Covid pandemic)

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The COVID19 pandemic, which has claimed 446,081 lives in India, has given rise to many more problems in the country. It has put a huge burden on the health resources of the country, affected the country's economy, and took away the jobs of lakhs of migrant laborers. Panicked people were wandering in search of life-saving medicines and oxygen. But despite all these systems deteriorating, people, volunteers, NGOs, and communities came forward.

Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance

“The effects of the first wave were similar to what you see during a disaster, but on a much larger scale,” explains Ingrid Srinath, director of the Center for Social Impact and Philanthropy (CSIP), Ashoka University. "In a time when people lost their lives, many people lost their jobs, people came forward. And when this crisis was not over -- which is not yet over -- whatever people could help, in whatever way They did. Those who could not help financially contributed through information."

About 51% of donors, whose family income is more than Rs 1 lakh, told CAF that they have donated "more than" during the Corona period. One in three (33%) people with a monthly income of more than Rs 50,000 donated to new and different causes. About 33% whose monthly income is more than 30,000 contributed to people who were battling the pandemic.

At least $1.27 billion was contributed to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) fund for COVID relief in just 52 days, our May 2020 review found, with private companies making losses. They have also contributed huge sums of money in this.

Lockdown and social distance rules also increased online donations. The survey found that 44% of Indians interviewed for this survey prefer to use digital wallets, compared to only 28% in the year 2019. Give India, one of the largest donation platforms in India, created the India COVID Response Fund on April 10, 2020, after the first lockdown.

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According to a report, the number of people who contributed daily to this fund, in which Rs 220 crore was deposited, was 3,50,000. This one-time contribution ranged from Rs 50 to Rs 5 crore. Payments website Razorpay also reported a 180% increase in online donations in the first month of the lockdown, from March 24 to April 23.

The second wave of the corona pandemic affected a large number of Indians, either directly or in the community. Many families became insecure about their future due to loss of livelihood or loss of income. In such a situation, Indians came forward to help each other and the NRIs also helped in large numbers and huge amounts in the Covid 19 relief funds, Srinath said.

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