A Lockdown Only Adds To Virus Concerns

Forced shutdowns will disrupt the supply chain and make the functioning of essential services, like healthcare, more difficult

- Jagdish Rattanani

The complete lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight the coronavirus threat has generally been welcomed. But the totality and severity of the action and the manner in which it is being executed across the nation will cause more problems than it can solve. We already have horrific images from our capital cities and remote parts of the nation of police forces, many in plain clothes, beating people up for venturing outside without an understanding of why the person may be out. In some cases, vehicles are allegedly being seized, and there are already complaints in some instances that vendors have had to pay to sell vegetables.

Willy-nilly, the first line of defence against the pandemic has, therefore, turned out to be the strong arm of the state, with all the ills that the danda, as the weapon of choice, can bring in these matters. Contract labour and temporary workers who have left their workplaces in the cities and are headed back home are now forced to walk hundreds of miles with little or no money and no food or water. Those leaving for their home districts are unlikely to be back at work soon. This is not counting the disease burden they may carry or add to by unwittingly being carriers of the virus to far and remote parts of the nation, having travelled in overcrowded trains and buses before the services were suddenly stopped. What is worse, many of them are now being looked at with suspicion, as if any cough or sneeze might make them criminals worthy of penal action rather than medical attention.