Do you know how Indian cities are faring on the mental wellbeing index during this pandemic crisis?

The whitepaper titled Coronavirus Consumer Insights -1 revealed the mental wellbeing index of the various cities of India.

Mental wellbeing is measured as a person’s ability to cope with various worries they may encounter; it is the sum of the cognitive, behavioural, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of a person.

According to experts, during a serious and continued crisis like the current lockdown, the coping ability may increase or decrease against worries depending on several personal and environmental factors.
 
According to N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research, “Delhi (NCR) citizens display an ‘Outstanding’ rating in the Mental Wellbeing Index (MWBI), with the citizenry’s coping skills bettering their worries.

Guwahati at 89 per cent MWBI and Hyderabad at 82 per cent MWBI both display ‘Excellent’ Mental Wellbeing. Indore displays an unchanged MWBI score at 76 per cent and continues to display ‘Good’ Mental Wellbeing.”

According to the report, Ahmedabad displays the lowest Mental Wellbeing at 25 per cent followed by Chennai at 28 per cent.
Kolkata, facing the dual crises of Covid-19 and Amphan is at 29 per cent MWBI.

Along with these cities, Nagpur (36 per cent), Kochi (37 per cent) and Coimbatore (39 per cent) also display ‘Very Poor’ Mental Wellbeing, said N. Chandramouli.

Dr. Jalpa Bhuta, Consultant Psychiatrist, practicing at Global Hospital and Hinduja Khar, said “The study shows that cities like Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai are not coping too well as compared to most others and combined health and economic anxieties are more prominent in these cities. It is important for authorities to invest in more detailed studies of citizens’ mental wellbeing to address these issues.”

Four cities showed improved Mental Wellbeing between Lockdown 1.0 and Lockdown 3.0.

Delhi (NCR) was leading and the city displays Outstanding Mental Wellbeing at 107 per cent with Coping higher than Worry.
The city also shows the highest rise in Mental Wellbeing Index (rise of 44 per cent) from Lockdown 1.0.

Lucknow showed a 27 per cent improvement in the Mental Wellbeing Index to now display Good on the MWBI scale.

Mumbai has a rise in MWBI of 26 per cent, though still at a Poor on the MWBI metric.

Hyderabad is the only other city where Mental Wellbeing Index has shown a rise of 18 per cent, rising from Good to Excellent Mental Wellbeing.

All other cities either did not show any change in the MWBI or showed a decrease in Mental Wellbeing.

The City Mental Wellbeing heat map also clearly shows the deterioration of Mental Wellbeing in a majority of the cities with significant exceptions -- green indicates better MWBI, and colour changes progressively toward Red showing worse MWBI.