Is this the time to go back to strict lockdown again? The argument may sound absurd and unwarranted for many raising the bogey of livelihoods, migrant misery and economic slump. But, this is a harsh reality staring us and for those who are not ready to see the reality, which we have ignored so far under the cover of lowest mortality and highest recovery rates, must wake up and see that the predictions made by top global experts are coming true. We were just under 100 cases a day around 15 April. Three months later, we’re reporting over 38,500 coronapositive cases daily. Do we need the figures to get any higher to jolt us and accept that if global predictions also come true for India’s worst-case scenario, then we will be even higher than the United States’ current Covid-19 figures?
Given the country’s healthcare infrastructure and the current spate of natural calamities aggravating the pressure on available human resources, can India afford a situation like the US and Brazil? Do we have any magic wand than shutting ourselves to at least incur lesser damage to human lives? The shutting down has to be innovative and restrictive, yet productive in a way that those who matter in moving the country’s growth engines — politics, business, investors and the corporate — must maximise the online meeting medium and social distancing norms to keep the business as usual. In fact, the super-spreaders have been those on roads and outside our homes with little or no real contribution in boosting the economy. Can we deliver maximum with the minimum interface — if needed, work from home — to make it a habit as in routine office days?
We have crossed the dangerous one million mark. Most nations worldwide are switching back in lockdown mode, fearing corona resurgence. The “out-of-hand” situation in India is a picture of paradox. At one stage, the country was an example for many global nations. Today, we ourselves do not know how to handle and what best to do as a nation. Every state is now on its own, issuing respective lockdown restriction guidelines, which are assessed on the basis of daily corona-positive cases and not determined by the actual threat of the pandemic, which is multiplying manifolds like a TB infection or cancer in its last stage.
Many states like Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu are facing the worst and these are the country’s business, political and corporate hubs. Many who still argue that India is still better with over 62% recovery and mortality rate lower than the US, Spain and Italy must not forget if today, we go for voluntary corona testing, we will cross the US current numbers by millions. The 75 cases in the BJP office in Patna, a “super-spreader” marriage party in Bihar, the dozens of positive cases in Raj Bhavans of Bihar and Maharashtra are a stark reality we have been ignoring that we have “underestimated” the pandemic and defied the outcome without logic or any definite health remedy to counter it. The situation calls for policymakers to rethink if restricting public movement outside homes and allowing only essential mobility of those “urgently” needed to keep the governance and business in the country moving.
It’s time to learn the lessons from corona. Had we ever thought about working from home, doing online business transactions, and countless meetings on social media apps to keep us moving? We have done well and have done it honestly. We also learnt that prevention holds key to our health as we understood the significance of sanitation now. The same way, the bureaucracy and political leadership realised that ignoring “Make in India” was a major miss. Had we realised the true potential of “Make in India” in the last six years, India would have been Aatmanirbhar already and the country wouldn’t have created a fuss on a longer and an honest lockdown to keep the pandemic at bay.