COVID-19 AND SOCIAL COST

Abstract

The current research highlights the social cost issues caused by Covid-19 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The problems which have big impact on social life of people, were studied in current research. This objective of study is focused on exploring the social cost issues including public health, business disruption, job recession, poverty rise, mental and physical health issues, and specifically spiritual health of people. Current research also focuses on changes and deviation in standard lifestyle and family structure settings amid Covid-19. This study addresses the research question of finding the social cost issues which have limited human activities in their own sphere. The study covers the workflow from background of Covid 19, literature review, theoretical framework, and research methodology. The theories applied in this study were, Unequal and Combined Development Theory by Leon Trotsky and Risk Society Theory by Ulrich Beck. These two theories augmented the research workflow and helped to explore social cost issues caused by Covid 19. While the data collection is performed using a questionnaire and distributed to participants through online survey. There were 166 samples collected from people of study area. The collected data is used to run quantitative analysis and results are represented in graphical display. The study gives findings for diverse understanding of social cost issue caused by Covid-19 as the research is conducted in capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. The research concludes that the isolation and lockdown have increased the health issues and poverty. The research is concluded with providing suggestions and summary regarding social cost issues iv and answering the research questions. The suggestions provided in this study could be used to address the social cost issues in different areas of Pakistan.