COVID-19 lockdown: Saving lives and livelihood

The lockdown cannot be or should not be lifted fully, with cases of COVID-19 positives on the rise, both nationally and state-wise. Some states south of Vindhyas have done better than the Hindi heartland, particularly Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (in that order). No surprises there. States that generally appear at the bottom of the pile in social indices are suffering more, or as much as those that see high air traffic—which basically implies a straddling of the fine line between the primary contact-based transmission of the latter to community transmission.

We need more than a ‘hammer for a fly’—state administrations, in tandem with local bodies, must put up better testing and extreme lockdowns specific to hotspots. Also, India is divided between consumer and producer states. The economies of the latter type are suffering more at this stage. Not that anyone can flourish or even break even in this current limbo. The states are virtually staring at empty coffers—there’s no revenue, next to nil tax collections and hardly any GST compensation. Business—small or large—is shut. So are all other organic forms of livelihood that sustains India.

The world, unfortunately, cannot lapse back to a pristine primitive economy where humans can make do with air, sunlight, water and fruits. If this dreaded virus indeed pushes us back into a state of innocence, then probably we won’t need governments!

But we have no time to luxuriate in utopias. There’s hard work ahead. We need to plan that careful step towards opening neighbourhood shops, a few key manufacturing units—with physical distancing, mandatory masks and sensitisation, as indicated by the Union Home Ministry. A graded reopening plan, state-wise and zone-wise, needs to be worked out. Even if the lockdown is extended beyond May 3, it can’t be a blanket order. People cannot suspend living life to fight the virus. And can lockdowns obliterate COVID-19 from our midst?