Why in news?
India has responded to the spectre of large-scale transmission of the novel coronavirus and the unprecedented public health catastrophe it may bring by ordering a full national lockdown.
Why and How?
- The goal is to flatten the transmission curve and help a frayed health system cope with a large number of cases.
- Physical distancing of people, ensured through a suspension of rail and inter-State bus services, closure of public places, cessation of all non-essential activity and street-level monitoring, is the first order priority during a pandemic and the lockdown can ensure that.
- The options being used by States to enforce this are Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and the Indian Penal Code.
- What must follow is the galvanizing of governmental machinery to address essential requirements.
How the Janata Curfew Turned out to be, and What we can learn?
- The Janata Curfew on 22nd March 2020 saw near-total compliance, but culminated in noisy public celebrations.
- It was also marked by a last-minute scramble among migrant labour stuffing themselves into trains to return home ahead of the shutdown.
- Many hundreds more remained stranded in several cities, crowding termini, as train services were withdrawn.
- These hapless people, who must largely fend for themselves, have been potentially exposed to the pathogen; some may have unwittingly infected others.
- The week-long lockdown ahead cannot become a similar exercise in chaos, confusion and misery.
- As a war-like moment in the country’s history, it calls for massive preparation with all hands on deck to mitigate the impact on people, and to formulate a public health response for the period beyond the shutdown.
Duty of the Governments
- Governments must aid people during this difficult phase and prepare for wider testing.
- Governments have a duty to ensure that the most vulnerable classes, economically and socially, including the elderly, have access to essential articles including medicines, close to where they live.
- Considering that about 37% of households depend on casual labour as their major source of income for rural and urban India, and nearly 55% have tenuous regular employment, as per Periodic Labour Force Survey data for 2017-18, it is essential for governments to ensure that they get subsistence wages for as long as restrictions last.
- Funds transfers during the containment phase of the pandemic, followed by a stimulus to sustain employment are necessary.
- But a bigger challenge stares India in the face: can it get a universally accessible testing system in place to prevent transmission when the lockdown is lifted?
- China, South Korea and Singapore, as WHO points out, adopted a strict shutdown, but used the breather to get a grip on infections by testing at the population level.
- This is the hard work that lies ahead, and it will test the mettle of India’s national and State governments.
