Guest AuthorThe Article is written by Sainadh Duvvuru, Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer, HappyLocate.com, a relocation startup based out of Bangalore.
Without any doubt, the impact of corona virus pandemic will reverberate for many years, from massive economic damage to crumbling healthcare infrastructure. These are only just a few of many existing reason to whine. But along with economic damage, this public health emergency has also triggered a brand new phenomenon that is at its peak. The phenomenon is of relocation.
As colleges are shut, vanished jobs, rising unemployment and work from home has triggered a fresh wave of relocation. That means more people are on the go in comparison to pre Covid times. Even a cursory glance through your neighborhood or you immediate locality will give a fair idea as to how prevalent this new phenomenon is.
To corroborate my aforementioned facts, a recent survey done by Pew Research Center survey has indicated that the trend is most visible among young people. More than a third of people under age 30 said health or financial concerns stemming from the pandemic forced them to move in with family. Pew’s research also found that 12 per cent of the survey respondents moved in the past few months-3 per cent because of the coronavirus and 8 per cent for some other reason. One in Four movers attributed shutting of school or the college as the primary reason for moving. On the other hand, one in five quoted financial reasons including joblessness as the primary reason for the movement.
However, the picture in India is no different from America. According to Mumbai based think tank, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, almost 5 million salaried class people have been rendered jobless due to this ongoing pandemic and with the passage of time; this number is expected to shoot up even more. Even when the economy is gradually restoring a semblance of normalcy people who all are rendered jobless are heading back to their respective places. Also, as educational institutions, such as college and schools are completely shut, ever since Covid-19 induced lockdown has been imposed in India. Thus students living in the cities are also going back to their places leading to a hike in relocation numbers.
As the corporate sector in India which has wholeheartedly embraced work from home hybrid- thus people from tier 2 or 3 cities living in metro cities are finding it a good deal to save money and work from their homes in small towns. That is why there is a huge spurt in mobility, being witnessed among the youngsters in India.
What Holds Future for us?
This question is being asked every now and then. As we are crawling back to see some semblance of normalcy around us in terms of our life thus it is apt to say that the relocation is not going to see a foreseeable stop. With diluting lockdown provisions and the economy ushering into Unlock 4.0, things are changing fastly.
But that does not mean that we are going to see a quick stabilization in our lives as compared to pre-covid times. Given the nature of this virus, we should expect more transformation coming, more rapid changes gracing every sphere of our life and more relocation amongst the significant chunk of the population. So, as belonging to this fraternity, I can say this without qualms, that relocation is going to witness an unprecedented boom in turbulent times like this.
So, all stakeholders in relocation industries should be quick to acclimatize with this big change awaiting the industry. The need is not only to cater to the significant population on the go, but should also bring in changes in the services as per the need of the hour in challenging times like the ongoing pandemic.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Guest Author
Aravind Sundaram
