While it was said that the residents of Chennai hate lockdown and curbs under which they have been living for the past three months to contain the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, the research study carried out by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) revealed that most of the Chennaiites want the lockdown to remain in place in some form to mitigate the spread.

According to the online survey carried out by the IIT-M's Department of Management Studies on the lockdown impact and effectiveness across the country including Chennai, it was found that 88% of people who responded to the study had said that they want the lockdown to be in place in some form. 

These pro-lockdown people include employees of private firms, government employees, retired people, and homemakers whereas traders and business people stood against the curbs and wished for relaxations. The survey was taken by 3,136 respondents of which 46.6% belong to Chennai, 16.9% from the rest of districts from Tamil Nadu, and 36.5% from the Indian states. 

As per the study, 38% of the residents of Chennai wanted intense lockdown in place while 54% of people from the rest of Tamil Nadu voted against the formula of intense lockdown. 50% of the Chennaiites voted to have the lockdown in some form with fewer restrictions whereas 12% of the residents wanted the lockdown to be repealed completely. As far as the Indian states are concerned, 37% of respondents wished to stay under the ambit of the intense lockdown.

49% of people wanted to have a common lockdown with more relaxations while 13% of people voted to revoke all the curbs and restrictions imposed on them. Overall, more than 51% of the respondents claimed that the lockdown has been moderately effective whereas 21.3% of people said the restrictions are very effective while 5.5% claimed that the lockdown was ineffective. 

The department cited that the majority of people wished to have lockdown in some form as they are giving preference to their health more than the livelihood. However, the working sector people sounded that they are against the lockdown. According to the study, 45% of entrepreneurs and 50% of job goers claimed that they have been professionally affected in the wake of the lockdown. 

The study reveals that people who voted for anti-lockdown had chosen livelihood than their health whereas 48% of the retired people and 34% of homemakers have said that they are least affected due to the lockdown. To put out in age, most of the people above the age of 55 voted to have general lockdown in place with fewer restrictions and 37% of people under this age category said they have been affected while 54% of people below 25 years claimed that they were affected professionally.

Chennai has been one of the top five worst-affected cities in India amid the lockdown and restrictions. As of Wednesday, the city has reported 60,533 cases so far of which 22,777 are active, 36,826 have been discharged, and 929 had succumbed to the virus. Tamil Nadu has reported 94,049 cases so far as of Wednesday.