The impact of Covid - 19 on households’ gem mining industry: a study based on Pelmadulla divisional secretariat, Ratnapura district

Abstract

The study aims to identify the impacts of COVID-19 on the household gem mining industry. In order to obtain the objective, this study used household income as a dependent variable and education, monthly consumption costs, and the number of family members as independent variables. The primary data were collected through structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, and interviews by the cluster sampling method. For descriptive and multiple regression analysis, MS Excel and SPSS 26 are used. This study found that few impacts were found through descriptive analysis, such as savings decreasing, fewer working days, and health issues being quite high due to the lockdown and travel restrictions. Moreover, this study revealed that education, numbers of family members have been positive impact and monthly consumption cost has been negative impact on the income level of households. Thus, negative and positive relations between variables promote the socio-economic status of the household gem mining industry. Hence, this research draws up a few recommendations to improve the socio-economic status of the household. The government should consider the gem mining field and also adopt the proper policy for those workers to overcome such a situation in the future.