Unstructured Interview: A Sample to Practice

             

Aim of the Article: To understand the impact of corona virus in life of people by conducting an unstructured interview

The present year of 2020 is facing an unexpected respiratory disease causing due to novel corona virus (COVID-19). In present time whenever we are thinking of a contemporary problem in our society, either we think in Indian context or in the context of world wide, the first and foremost issue that comes to our mind is the spreading of coronavirus outbreak. It is spreading physically as well as mentally from the  China, Italy, Iran, Spain, Germany and other countries to India, from rich to poor societies without caring the cast creed or religions.              

According to World Health Organization (WHO), Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that causes illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). COVID-19 is a new strain that was discovered in 2019 and has not been previously identified in humans. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigation found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.

Common signs of infection include

*Respiratory symptoms *Runny nose *Sore throat *Fever *Cough

*Shortness of breath and breathing difficulties

In more severe cases , infection can cause

*Pneumonia *Severe acute respiratory syndrome *Kidney failure and even *Death

 

 

Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include

·         Regular hand washing;

·         Covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing;

·         Thoroughly cooking meat and eggs; and

·         Avoidance of close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is responding to this pandemic respiratory disease  caused by novel (new) coronavirus. Presently the situation poses a serious public health risk and leading to many impacts in psychological factors as well as in daily life of people in India as well as worldwide. The most important strategy that have been taken by the government of India and many other countries as well is Lockdown, which means people can go outside only for emergency cases and have to keep social distance and maintain self-quarantine. For the working people, for the students it is tough to keep oneself within a house for such a long days but people are maintaining just only to minimize or to prevent the outbreak. Many changes can be found mentally or socially or in other aspects. Everyone is trying not to be infected in any chance. Through an anthropological perspectives several things can be understood regarding the impacts in the life of people for all these issues related to corona virus.    

Method Used and procedure: 

           The unstructured interview  method was used to collect data regarding the aim of this study. An unstructured interview is an interview in which there is no specific set of predetermined questions, although the interviewers usually have certain topics in mind that they would cover during the interview. Unstructured interviews flow like an everyday conversation and tend to be more informal and open-ended. Interviewers must always keep in mind , that

·         what is the purpose of the interview

·         interview questions should not be deviated from the participant’s skill set

·         conversation should be as minimum as possible to cover up

·         the interviewer should be skilful and aware of the topic; and

·         interview should not be deviated from the aim.

Advantages and disadvantages of unstructured interview :

1.      Candidate can understand better about the concerned topic;

2.      It is flexible in nature and more comfortable and interactive as well;

3.      Very practical method to analyse an individualistic view

4.      It breaks communication gap between researcher and informant

On the other hand,

1)      It is time consuming;

2)      Not suitable for every participant;

3)      Chances of getting diverted is very high ; and

4)      There is a risk of conversation on confidential matters to be spoken out.

As for the current lockdown situation it is not possible to go out, meet people and collect data face to face. But for the sake of the completion of the study the data was collected through telephonic interview.

Telephonic interview was taken from 20 individuals who are not from anthropological background. Participants were of different ages from 18 years to 50 years of old ages. Participants were requested to give an interview which took 15 to 20 minutes each. The questions that were asked to them were not structured, those were random according to the flow of the conversation. Near about 10 to 15 questions were asked to understand different aspects of where the impacts have been found like lifestyle changes, habits, awareness, precautions taken by them, changes in relationships, how they are spending their time, are they trying to aware others as well, food habits, mood swings, enjoyments and many more like this. The questions were not fixed to all the participants, it is like a short case study of everyone that was taken within some time.

The subjects were broadly chosen from 7 economic or educational status, those are,

·         House wife with no personal income and personal income;

·         Businessman and serviceman;

·         Student of primary school and higher education;

·         Professor and school teacher;

·         Nurse;

·         Small industrial worker ; and

·         Old woman.

         Observation and analysis:

Participants were selected randomly as to find out the impacts in little diverse aspects and questions were asked to understand both the negative impacts due to corona virus outbreaking and positive impacts due to the lockdown period that is going on to prevent the outbreak situation. Here the interviews are as follows,

PARTICIPANT 1:

             She is an 47 years old woman. She is a house wife. He was notified about the corona virus outbreak from the news channels. She is an active woman and follows news channels everyday basis to get notified about the current affairs. When she heard about the COVID-19 outbreak, at first she was not that much conscious about the matter. But when she came to know that this outbreak is going on in several countries she had started conscious about the matter and was little tensed as her only daughter was outside the state for educational purpose. Her daughter was in her hostel so she was furious about her health, food and sanitization purpose. She was extremely happy when she was informed by the news that due to the outbreak universities are remaining close and her daughter came back to home. She was relieved to have her daughter back to her in this current pandemic situation. Every day she prays to God for the safety of everyone. She is very conscious about the infection and maintains every precautionary measures and forced to follow her family members as well.

So for her every tension is centralised to her family and other families as well. She is active to get everyday notifications from the news channels. With the increasing spread of the virus her tension is also increasing simultaneously. According to her “she may not do anything for others like the doctors but can protect and aware her own family members and she can do the prayer to God for the well-being for everyone, which she is doing” .

         PARTICIPANT 2:

  He  is an 50 years old man. He is the head of his family and have one daughter. He is a small businessman, he sells water purifiers and even he provides services for those as well. During this lockdown period he is unable to open his shop and even unable to provide services to his customers. For this reason he is going through his economic loss. He has no that much bank balance for that he is tensed about how he will manage this loss in upcoming days. He is the only earning member in the house and does not have fixed salary. His daughter have got a chance to study abroad. It is hard for him to provide her sufficient money but also trying to provide as to carry on her study. He has an interest on gardening so during this lockdown period as he could not able to go out and even he is concern about the outbreak and taking great car for him and his family’s safety, he is doing gardening in his house instead of going out and spending happy time with his daughter and wife.

 So it can be seen that although he has an economic pressure to take care of his family but this lockdown period also gave him an opportunity to fulfil his hobby of gardening. According to him “ it is better to stay at home and doing something interesting rather than taking corona virus in his locality.  He says that he will manage his economic crisis but safe life is more important than money”. 

PARTICIPANT 3:

She is a 21 years young lady. She lives in other state for her educational purpose, corona outbreak has forced her to came back to her home before the lockdown. She was tensed about the situation and happy about that she came back to her home safely and before lockdown. She is an active student. She is taking information from news channels as well as internet and social media sites regarding this outbreak situation and  very much concerned about it. When she came back to home she took herself as self-quarantine for 21 days and does not meet with anyone not even gone out of their housing yard. She is taking precautions like sanitization and warm water and heling her family and others by airing them vocally.

She has a great pressure on her head of the assignments provided by her department professors through internet source. She s upset that she is unable to take preparation for her UGC-NET examination as she had thought that she will prepare herself during this long unexpected holidays. But for the pressure of assignment she is unable to complete that wish. Sometimes she is going through some psychological illness when the work is too hard, to get red from that she tries to watch some movies with her father and t cook something new dish. She have a boyfriend as well with whom he is egger to meet. Sometime she feels low about the situation and also hope for best.  

So she is an great example of a student life, whose exam is coming soon and she has pressure for the preparation. According to her, “may it is an unexpected holiday for us but we should use this time, should prepare our self for upcoming new future. ” even she has told about that there is a psychological behaviour that happening to her mind sometimes is that she knows there are lot of pending works to do but she has no mood to do so she takes some rest and after that start working and according to her then the work finishes little early with crisp in nature which concludes that we should take the necessary rest along with our heavy work pressure.  

PARTICIPANT 4:

He  is a 25 years old young boy, doing masters in Information technology. He loves to do practical works with computers and all. He was engaging with a project work on making drones. He was happily doing that but lockdown make him unable to go to the field. He does not have any income but being the only child in his family he has great responsibility. According to him preparing assignments that provided by his department professor does not have any meaning, he find more useful to learn something new in this lockdown period. He has a girlfriend, with her he is little egger to meet but controlling his emotion not just to make the other side fall in. he has a great pressure to fulfil his home loan for that he is trying for online jobs as well as he is trying to learn new skills from online courses and collecting online certificates to add in his CV.

According to him this time is to make our self, safe and potential for future journey. He is feeling so bad for the people who are depending on daily wages and tensed about their survival but also he is unable to do anything for them as he has no power or money but  also he does not want to go out to have corona. He is an active and healthy guy and hoping for the best that this situation will recover soon.

PARTICIPANT 5:  

  He is a 55 years old man. He has a grocery shop. During this lockdown period his shop was permissible to be opened. For this reason he is going to his shop everyday but with wearing mask and hand gloves. He is meeting with many people in his shop but he does not come closer to anyone. He does not have any servant to help him for that he has to maintain the whole shop alone. He is tensed with the outbreak situation but trying to aware the people who come to his shop for groceries to maintain physical distance and to use the necessary  precautionary materials. He is an active person but along with that he has a hopelessness of not spending more times than usual that others are doing. Although he has to go out but he only visit the market one day in a week. Apart from this when he come back to home he try to cook something for her family members. 

PARTICIPANT 6: 

She is a 50 years old house wife. She has one son who is doing his higher study. She is concerned about the COVID-19 outbreak and well aware about the situation. She is an private tutor, she love to teach her little students but  due to this lockdown and outbreak situation students are not coming to her home for taking coaching classes. She loves her students, love to spend their time with them but no a days she is feeling upset for not having them in her arms. Now she is trying to aware them over telephone and taking care of her family members. She is growing with an new habit of weaving. She is watching videos from YouTube and trying t learn new weaving patterns. 

PARTICIPANT 7:

He  is a 48 years old businessman. He has a business of production of sarees in his own factory. Workers are not coming for the lockdown. He is supporting the lockdown but very much pressurized for his economic imbalance. He has no such savings , but have a lot pf responsibilities. He has a son who is in class vii only. He has a lot of tension to carry on his family. due to the zero production he is unable to provide sarees to his head. He stays in a joint family with his brother’s family and mother. He pays for the groceries and vegetables for the  family but now he is in deep tension that how he will survive for this period. He is conscious about the fact and trying not to go out although his works in his factory itself. But to earn something he and his family members got engaged to weave sarees and trying to earn little from whatever they are able to provide to his head.

So this is a hard time for him and his family. they have their own factory but now for to this bad situation working like the daily wages even they are not getting any money in back, the little that is earning is necessary for their daily food.

PARTICIPANT 8: 

She is a 30 years old lady and is a part time teacher in a primary school. For being a teacher of an village school it is not possible to take online classes. She can’t even meet with her co-workers and for that she used to see them in video calls. With some of her friends who have not yet married she used to spent time, used to talk with them over telephone and she have a fear that unless she will talk they might feel lonely and will not talk to her anymore. She is concerned about corona virus so she did not go out of her home. She have a family with her son, husband and mother. Now a days she is sharing her time with her family which usually do not able to do. Now she is trying to have fun with her little children , simultaneously taking care of his safety. She is spending her time in cooking and maintaining home to keep mind off from this pandemic trauma.

PARTICIPANT 9:

  She is a 22 years old woman, doing masters in geography. She is really upset for not having fun with her friends that she always used to do. She is psychologically depressed as she is not getting interest in her study but she has a lot of pressures of studies in her master’s course as well as for UGC-NET and IIRS JET exam. But she is facing hard to concentrate in her studies. According to him she has never been in home for such a long day but due to corona she is forced to be in home. She used to smoke and drink and hangout with her friends which became stop. She is taking care not going out from home but she is feeling bad deep inside. To relief from stress she is trying to cook some dishes, trying to dance or sing songs which is her extra qualifications. She talks to her friend over phone and through video calls. Thus she is doing overall fine but wants to get relief from this barrier. 

PARTICIPANT 10 :

  He  is an 28 years old man. He is unmarried and doing a job in a small industry. Corona virus have affected him not by physically but mentally and economically. He has lose his job and even he is unable to go back to her home. he stays far from her home near the industrial area. He has a rent house there and he is alone. He was working after lockdown as his industry was open but before someday the industry was shut down and workers were forced to left the job and there is no surety of getting back the job. For that he is getting traumatic for his unemployment. He is doing her days with the savings. He was building a brick-made house as he has a mud made house. But the building remains incomplete due the shortage of the money and lockdown. Now he had an interest of getting married which remained incomplete as well as this building. He is now alone in his rent house. He is paying for the house every month e=without any income. Even he does not have that much degree or experience to do work from home as he does not have that much knowledge about internet resources. But he is trying to get rid from all of this problems.

According to him his life is a struggle and he will definitely win it. With this energy he is doing well even with these much losses. 

PARTICIPANT 11:

She is a nurse with 35 years of age. She loves her occupation and took responsibility to the patients. She is the nurse of a small health centre in her village. She does not have reported any corona affected patient there and hope not to get as well. She is trying to help the patients who is coming to the health centre with some of the  symptoms. She is taking care of herself specially as she don’t want to get affected by anyhow, and she is willing to help the patient if someone is having virus effects. She has a great responsibility in her hands. She can’t lose her patience. Sometimes she does not have energy to work but she has to do. When she stays in home she used to cook healthy foods, try to clean and sanitize her home. she is an active woman with her busy schedule. According to her it is her duty to keep everyone safe who comes in her personal as well as professional life. She even use to advice people over telephone if anyone is unable to come to the health centre or u=in emergency. She is aware with the incoming health notices by the government as well and trying to maintain those.

PARTICIPANT 12:  

He is 19 years old boy doing bachelors and only son of his family. he is very happy to have the unexpected holidays. He has no pressure from her department as there is some students who does not have internet access and for that reason professors are not taking any online classes even there is no decision have been made yet about his semester exam. So he does not have any tension. He is enjoying his life with his mobile phone. He is enjoying his life by watching web series, movies in online webs. Sometimes he goes out to play cricket with his neighbourhood friends. According to him he is taking care of himself but sometimes he need to play otherwise he will be mad in the home.

PARTICIPANT 13:

 He is a 50 years old man. He is a private tutor and works for a private association in day time. For the current lockdown situation his association is not working and even the students also are not coming to his home to take coaching classes. He lives with a joint family with total 7 family members where only his brother is a working man but his factory is also closed for the workers. He have no such bank balance and even he has the responsibility for the study of his only son. He has an old mother as well and he himself is suffering from serious cardiac issues. Medicine is a big cost for his family.

Now he is working in the factory of his brother where every member unless his mother is weaving sarees and his brother deliver those few piece sarees to his head and earns little. Thus their family is going on. It is a hard time for all of them. But they have hope that everything will be fine soon  

PARTICIPANT 14:

He  is a 32 years old man. Lives in a village area and have a small garment shop in the village market. He goes out only one day in a week, he is maintaining the precautions to be safe from corona virus. He has a little baby of only of 5 months. He has not such bank balance, he is tensed about his economic condition as he does not earn that much of money which is necessary for his family where there are 3 other adult members and now a small baby. But he is hoping by staying inside that everything would be fine soon. He is very conscious about his baby’s safety so he is trying to safe himself by not going out. He is doing garden inside the house boundary and spending time with his little member and family. sometimes  he is cooking for them and helping his wife and mother in some works.  

PARTICIPANT 15:  

She  is an 48 years old woman. She had been separated from her husband before a years ago. She has a young daughter with 22 years of age and old parents in her house. Her husband provides money for her daughter but she does not take any economical help from her husband due to some reason. She does some handicrafts and sells them to the customers through telephonic and social media contact. Now a days she is very much tensed about his husband as he is not staying with her, how is he doing n this situation, as she still loves him but she is unable to do anything for her life situation and then this corona makes her crazy to resolve her relationship problem as she is more stressed for her husband rather than her economic condition. Now she is not able to sell the handicrafts not even can but the raw materials due to lockdown. So now she is looking after the safety of her old parents, daughter and herself.

PARTICIPANT 16:  

He  is a 40 years old man working in a cement industry. He is the general manager of that industry, he visited few days in the factory and most of the time he handles his work usually over phone calls or videos conferences as he does not like to go out as such. But according to him there is may be a psychological change happened to his mind that he is not liking to stay at home now a days. He says that “I am feeling bore and frustrated while staying at home continuously”. He used to go out for some time to avoid frustration. He has a Labrador with whom he used to go out every day for some time. He does not have that much of tension regarding his economic life because of his confirmed salary but he is tensed for the others who does not have this security. He is spending time with his only daughter and wife, watching movies and cooking food for them and hoping the situation to be recovered soon.  

PARTICIPANT 17:  

She  is 10 years old girl, studying in class v. Her annual examination for class v was done but result did not came out dur to this obstacle. She is egger to start her new lessons for class vi. She is not able to go to her private tutor as well. Now she is learning some arts, homecrafts from YouTube channels. She is spending free time as she does not have any pressure regarding her study yet. She is enjoying her days by watching movies by watching movies, cartoons with her father. She even sometimes helps her mom to worshiping their Home ancestor every day. Now she is getting bore day by day as she is unable to meet her friends for so long. She said that “there was a time when I was trying to get a leave from my study but now I am feeling that this leave is too much, need to go back to my busy schooldays”.

PARTICIPANT 18: 

 She  is a 30 years old married lady having a daughter and husband in her family. she used to go with her daughter to take to her school, coaching centres and there she used to meet with other guardians, with them she has a friendly relationship. She is missing those hangout with them. Now she is very much tensed about the pandemic situation, praying every day for well-being of everyone. She is doing her daily routine of cooking food, cleaning home  and so on only that she is missing her friends. But she talk with them over phone calls. She sometimes spend some personal time as well with her husband as he feels frustrated to stay at home in this long period of time. She wanted to learn something new in the free times but she could not as there are lot of works she has to do all over the day.

PARTICIPANT 19: 

 She is a 80 years old woman. She is an widow having two son,  two daughter-in-law and two grand-son. Her two son does not have any government jobs, one have a saree manufacturing factory and other have a. she know that there is something called corona virus which spreads through human physical interaction and through coughing and sneezing. She is egger to meet her 3 daughters who are married and stays in their in-law’s house. She has not met with them for a long period. She is observing that her both the sons are struggling with economic pressure. In this age because of her there is a demand of medical treatments for that a lot of money spent from her son’s pocket. Now she feels like an extra pressure over them. She does not help them physically but try to aware them with words. Sometimes they feels irritated with her as she is like an extra tension to them. Now she just want to die as she knows that she can’t do anything for her children and don’t want to be extra weight in the family. 

PARTICIPANT 20:

  She is an college professor. In 36 years of her age she lives with her husband and only son. She is living her busy life as usual even in this period f lockdown just the difference is she is doing work from home. she is busy to taking classes over zoom, Facebook or other social medias. Having experience of taking live lectures, managing the notes to provide her students as well as taking care of her 4 years old son and her husband who is also experiencing working from home. according to her, “this may be an unexpected situation for us but we should not stop our life until we are not tired, we should go ahead with our everyday duties. We should use this opportunity rather feeling bad with the situation. Of course we can’t do anything for others like doctors or police force but what we can do is we can make ourselves safe from spreading virus as well as rumours”.

Conclusion:

           So through the above interviews, I have experienced many aspects of our life. Corona virus outbreaking is such an unexpected incident in everyone’s life. Through these interviews I came across to many hearts, experienced many pains of economic pressure, psychological illness, pain of feeling useless, pain of being separate from loved ones. Lockdown is the most precious precaution that decided by out government to prevent the outbreak, although we are observing cases to be growing. But these interviews made me feel the inner voices of the people from age 10 to 80. How they are experiencing this incident. Tried to view the current situation through their eyes. One side the student who is feeling psychological pressure for having lots of assignments and projects and on the other side observed a student in lower educational standard  to propose that she is feeling bore with this long leave wants to study again.

One side I found a student of bachelors who does not have that much tension for future, enjoying the days watching movies and web series and on the other hand found a responsible person who is constantly trying to pay the home loan through working from home resources and even learning new online courses to add in his CV.

I have found responsible fathers who have economic pressures to fulfil family demands as well as have tension to secure their child by not going out on this situation.

Anthropologists does not judge any heart but experience what the people are experiencing through their eyes. Being an anthropologist I have learned that, Corona virus is keeping it’s bad as well as good impacts in human life, like, the economical and psychological stress but simultaneously  people are trying to learn new things as well, trying to find out the way to enjoy their life with their family, trying to understand the value of time and family members as well. This is the time when we will be together to face the challenge that is provided by a small virus. Through this unstructured interview on 20 individuals, the exploration of the impacts of corona virus in the life of people was an amazing experience for me to hear the inner voice of my acquaintances.