Be it Delhi or Chandigarh, Panipat or Palwal, almost every third Indian is bugged up with mosquito menace. The recent study by LocalCircles claims that 70 percent of Indian households blame their local bodies’ officials for not fogging in their areas especially during the monsoon season. This survey was conducted in 352 districts of the different states of the country comprising New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, UP, Uttarakhand etc.
In this, there are responses collected from 2035 people from Punjab, comprising districts and UT like Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Sangrur, Bathinda etc. Also, there are around 3011 from Haryana from Gurugram, Faridabad, Hisar, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Sonipat, Panipat, Rohtak, Palwal, Panchkula etc that blame their local bodies for lackdasical behaviour.
The survey received more than 38,000 responses from Indians residing in 352 districts of India. 61% of the participants were men while 39% were women. 43% of respondents were from tier 1 districts, 31% from tier 2 and 26% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts respectively.
70% Indian households say their Municipal Corporation or Panchayat does not at all or rarely does any fogging activity for mosquito control in their area. One of the question sought citizens’ observation about the number of times their MCs or Panchayat conducts anti-mosquito fogging in their area. In response, 37% of citizens said Municipality or Panchayat “never” conducts fogging activity for mosquito control in their area.
33% said they conduct such activity “1-2 times”, 10% said “3-6 times”, 8% said “6-12 times”, and 5% said “over 12 times” a year respectively. 7% of citizens didn’t say a word. This question in the survey received 17,985 responses.
Sachin Taparia, Founder of LocalCircles, told The Daily Guardian, “35% Indian households spend Rs 200 or more each month on mosquito control; 44% spend up to Rs 200. Only 5% Indian households use fogging services for mosquito control while the majority rely on electric repellents, rackets, coils, sprays and creams.”