Lockdown Roadmap: The Way Ahead

The Government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown on March 24 with an appeal to 1.34 billion people to stay indoors and observe social distancing norms to fight the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Government took detailed, deliberate and calibrated steps to impose this preventive measure. Pandemics like this have shaken the world since time immemorial, if we peep into history, 2020 is not the worst year to live in. These included a mystery of fog covering Europe , Asia and West Asia due to Icelandic volcanoes leaving these places in darkness for 18 months and economic stagnation till 640 AD, the year 1349 , when the Black Death hit Europe killing 20 million and 1918 when the Spanish flu killed 100 million people.

The world today is more prepared and well informed. The present crisis was earlier thought as local but soon it became global – WUHAN SE JAHAN TAK .The policies , institutional framework and promulgation was in place by promulgating the Disaster Management Act 2005 on March 24, 2020. There are a large number of comprehensive guidelines issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, but no guidelines specific to pandemics were there, thereby leaving everything for the executing bodies to interpret and implement.

The Centre took prompt action not only in the country but with neighbors, but slipped on certain aspects for masses.

The Government should address the following aspects immediately:

Firstly, the authorities should act as enablers rather than impediments in executing the policies, advisories and guidelines of administration. The work accountability of Government officers be fixed, measured and evaluated on the scales of presence and effectiveness. Lackadaisical attitude should be punished and should be a lesson for posterity that democracy still stands for the people.

Error of judgment should be pardoned, but error of intent punished.

Secondly, there is no dearth of resources, finance and manpower. What we lack is will and empathy. The government had already released a bailout package of $22.6 billion on March 26 for the poor strata of the population but the execution was delayed, badly planned and did not reach the right people in the right quantity. Instead of having long and overstretched supply chains the cash transfer should have been resorted with a pan-India relief card which the government can recharge on a monthly basis and which will be cost effective and will obviate the malpractices of middlemen.

Thirdly, the concept of selective actionable intelligence by government officials should be viewed seriously. A case in point is congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat which was a great lapse on the part of local bodies and the nation had to pay so dearly. The cockroach conundrum should be practiced which says ‘calm, positive and pro-action, not reaction or inaction’.

Fourthly, the bankruptcy of leadership at tactical and operational levels needs to be redefined, especially during crisis situations. The glaring examples are the Kashmir Floods and the issue of 139 million migrant workers who were left in the lurch, unguided, unattended and unwanted.

The leaders should have anticipated the mammoth problem, organised camps for them to stay, have food to eat and used this workforce to clean and cleanse the environment, keeping social distancing norms. This would have provided them food, social and economic security, besides empathy and succor at the time of need.

Fifthly, the new normal has to be formalised where the social distancing, hygiene imperatives and environmental care need to be followed and respected. The previous pandemics like Black Death reduced toxic lead pollution and in 1610 the Latin America Small Pox virus epidemic saw a drastic drop in Co2 levels.

Office timings can be altered, work from home be encouraged and eco-friendly products can be promoted

Lastly, the Covid warriors or even government officials who have done yeoman’s service, should be rewarded. The contribution of scavenging staff, security staff and other such unsung heroes should be praised.

As they say, praises are wages.

( Brigadier Vinod Dutta is former, Secretary,DCMG (Disaster Management). He has almost three decades of experience in disaster management. He is presently a senior advisor & Member of Centre Research and Consultancy Committee at Centre for Disaster Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi. He is also Senior Consultant at the National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi).

-The opinions expressed are of the author's alone