66% people in Uttar Pradesh believe that the spread of Covid-19 is caused by the Muslim population, while 93% people blame ‘foreigners’ for the spread of the pandemic, according to a survey conducted in 2020.
Professor Asad Islam, Director of the Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability in the Monash Business School, asked 2,138 people across 40 neighbourhoods in Uttar Pradesh, about what they thought about the rise in COVID cases. It is important to note that this work was done in 2020, but the research team believes it still rings true of current stigmas that may be impacting how people react to the pandemic.
Professor Islam found that 93% of participants believed that foreigners were responsible for the ongoing disaster, with 66% of them blaming Muslim population for the spread of COVID.
A substantial 34% of participants said that they blamed healthcare workers for failing to contain the spread of COVID, while a further 29% blamed law enforcement agencies for the same reason.