Corona lock down poorly planned, did not factor in urban poor

By Satyen Mohapatra

March 28, 2020

New Delhi: As television channels recently streamed visuals online to every home of shocking scenes of hundreds of young and old, men, women and children leaving the cities and metros,the devastating impact of Corona virus suddenly became palpable

Hungry with no food, shelter or work they were just trying to flee away.
The fear of Covid 19 pandemic which had left thousands dead globally, nor counter measures of lock down or social distancing had any meaning for them as they undertook a journey of hundreds of kilometers on foot to their home in the villages.
To check precisely this kind of mass migration public transportation bus and train services had been stopped.

The plan had failed here as daily wage earners trudged homewards on foot or packed onto any available transport including rooftops of buses. They were risking possible infections in cramped conditions to reach safety of their villages.

The whole purpose of lock down seems to have been negated by this kind of a fall out as the pandemic bared the social inequalities. Without a safety net the poor in India just cannot survive , hunger is clearly a bigger threat for them than even corona.
As the news spread of the mass exodus authorities rushed to make arrangements for buses and other transportation for them.

Was this kind of a reaction not factored in by the authorities? While authorities definitely will reel out statistics in terms of number of shelters ready for the homeless daily wage earners and food packets distributed in thousands or lakhs, but no amount of statistics can satisfy those poor people who were left shelterless and hungry. The daily wage earner whose family depend on the little cash the earning member brought home every day to barely subsist in the city, needs psychological assurance that his and his family’s needs will be fulfilled for a long time .

Just an assurance by CM or the PM on television that no one need leave home and their needs will be taken care of and no one will be allowed to die of hunger, is clearly not enough if the implementation at the ground level leaves much to be desired.

Definitely sufficient ground work had not been done or there would not have been this kind of mass exodus from cities . To shelter and feed lakhs of daily wage earners even temporarily requires meticulous logistical and financial planning on a huge scale, which was clearly not done.Adequate food or shelter to cater to the huge demand which must have spiked following the sudden lock down was just not there .

Could the government have given sufficient notice for the lock down so that the poor and impoverished were not put in such a quandary.

Secondly, perhaps, at the ground level there was a lack of communication or faith on as to how long was the government ready to feed and provide them shelter. With the daily wage earners job gone and facing a completely uncertain future , the wiser choice for them was to go back to the their village where a modicum of food and shelter was assured. The prospect of large scale epidemic in the air must have also tilted their decision to migrate .

Ironically, they are ignorant that they may be taking the virus along with them into the remotest villages of India.

Till now India unlike many other rich industrialised nations has been able to restrict the number of positive cases and number of deaths by adopting several strict measures by the government including lock down, but large scale migration and movement of population can lead to community transmission and massive calamity of unimaginable proportions. The country’s medical system is not robust enough to be able to handle countrywide massive outbreak.

Authorities were clearly caught in a Catch-22 situation because any police action against migrating labour who were defying clear orders to stay put wherever they were would lead to a major law and order situation.

Looking at the global scenario, India has till now done fairly well. India definitely has delayed community transmission to some extent and kept the figures of dead under control.

Prime Minister Modi has repeatedly and directly addressing the nation made it abundantly clear that at this hour of crisis the government is speaking with one voice and that the entire political class for a change has decided to fully support the Government.

But then we must also remember the goof ups, like Modi not sufficiently emphasizing the point that during the lock down, the government would take care of the urban poor, migrant workers and it would not mean non availability of essential items and that grocery, chemist shops would remain open, making people rush and crowd at the shops in the night going against social distancing.

There are also many who feel that several restrictions should have been imposed much earlier or there should have been much stricter restrictions at airports so that there would not have been many persons slipping through easily and reportedly spreading the disease to many others.

On the testing front government’s go slow is clear because it does not want to be swamped by the number of cases overburdening its already weak medical infrastructure. Nevertheless government has to be well prepared for any kind of eventuality and must increase the testing facilities which it is in the way doing by allowing private labs to test too.

What is missing is the war like effort required in ramping up our medical equipments, facilities and manpower . If the country must save itself everyone must make every effort to combat just this single scourge of corona.

What will be the impact of Corona virus socially, economically, psychologically, politically on India is not known but whether it will leave Indians weak or strong is the question.

–India News Stream