New Delhi, December 22 (PTI): Nearly 44 per cent of rural Indians are willing to pay for the COVID-19 vaccine, while more than half of the population in India's villages believe the coronavirus crisis is a "conspiracy by China', a survey showed on Tuesday.
The survey, conducted by Gaon Connection among 6,040 rural respondents across 60 districts in 16 states and one union territory, found that 36 per cent said they would not want to pay for it. The remaining 20 per cent said they are yet to decide on paying for the vaccine.
Of those who were willing to pay, two-third said they can pay up to Rs 500 for two doses of the vaccine, whenever it is available.
Meanwhile, at least 51 per cent of rural respondents called the coronavirus crisis a 'conspiracy by China' and about 18 per cent saw it as the government's failure. Nearly 20 per cent said they consider it an 'act of God', 22 per cent blamed the negligence of the people for the pandemic and 18 per cent did not share any view.
The face-to-face survey was conducted by the rural media platform's surveyors between December 1 and December 10. It said The selection of states, covering all regions of the country, was based on the prevalence of COVID-19 as per the data of the Union ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Gaon Connection said the survey has a margin of error of 5 per cent and a 95 per cent confidence level.
The states covered under the north zone included Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana.
States in the south zone included Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka. The west zone included Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh; whereas the east-northeast zone included Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh.
Around one-fourth of all respondents said that samples from at least one member of their household was taken for testing of COVID-19.
