The coronavirus induced lockdown has entered its 4th phase in India. Dubbed to be ‘Lockdown 4.0’, it came into effected on May 18 and is to stay in force until May 31, 2020.
However, going by the guidelines set by the government, one can say that it has truly taken off from PM Modi’s sentiment of ‘atmanirbhar’ (self-reliance) and thrust upon the states the responsibility to actually implement the lockdown on the ground. Apart from putting out a few orders about what is not to be allowed throughout the country till May 31, the Centre has basically asked the states and union territories to in fact, make and amend measures as per their requirement and as per the situation there.
The Home Ministry has left to the respective states and union territories (UTs), the delineation of the red, orange and green zones after taking into consideration the parameters set by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW).
Here’s an overview of the latest set of guidelines:
1. All domestic and international air travel; except for domestic medical services, domestic air ambulance, and for security purposes or purposes as permitted by Ministry of Home Affairs, will remain prohibited throughout the country.
2. All cinema halls, shopping malls, gymnasiums, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars and auditoriums, assembly halls and similar places, will continue to remain closed throughout the country.
3. All metro rail services will remain closed throughout the country.
4. Except for essential and health purposes, persons above the age of 65 years, persons with co-morbidities, pregnant women and children below 10 years of age have to stay home until May 31.
5. Schools, colleges and all educational/coaching institutions remain closed.
6. The curfew of 7 PM to 7 AM will be in place.
7. All social, political, religious functions, and places of worship will remain shut during extended lockdown
8. Movement of people in containment zones will be controlled and only medical emergencies or movement for essential goods / services will be allowed.
9. No state / UT shall stop the movement of any type of goods/cargo for cross land-border trade under Treaties with neighbouring countries.
10. Except in containment zones, the inter-state and intra-state movement of passenger vehicles and buses, with mutual consent of the states and UTs is allowed.
11. There will be intensive contact tracing, house-to-house surveillance and other clinical interventions in containment zones as required.
12. The Aarogya Setu app is no more mandatory as before, but district authorities and employers can suggest people to install it in their phones for “timely provision of medical attention to those individuals who are at risk”.
Take away
More than fifty days after the first lockdown was announced, as predicted, the coronavirus curve has not shown any signs of flattening. Economic growth is plummeting and the migrants are still on the road.
The division of the country into red, orange and green zones was carried out, but the operations and the implementation of the guidelines in these zones proved challenging due to the size of population, asymptomatic infections, knowledge gaps in dealing with the virus, the possibility of the cured getting re-infected and the differences in the time the virus showed up in different people – these problems still remain. There has been no emphasis on testing, apart from a customary mention of intensive contact tracing and surveillance to be carried out.
Aarogya Setu not mandatory anymore
The Aarogya Setu earned the reputation of being a nefarious attempt at putting into effect a surveillance system that raised data security and privacy concerns. Also, the app proved useless for low-income households and non-smartphone users. According to the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), the government had not clarified which ministry would be accessing the data of the users and the high occurrence of false positives.
Hence, probably now, softening its tone on the installation of the Aarogya Setu app, which was earlier made ‘mandatory’ for all employees in the private and public sectors and the responsibility of 100 percent coverage of which was put on the respective organizations; the Centre has now issued that “employers on a best effort basis” should ensure that the app is installed by all employees having compatible mobile phones.
The current guideline on Aarogya Setu also move away from the earlier 100 percent coverage of the app among residents of containment zones to be ensured by local authorities. Now, during lockdown 4.0, the district authorities are merely to ‘advise’ individuals to install the app and update their health status to facilitate timely provision of medical attention to those at risk.
CMs’ responsibility
Facing harsh criticism over its handling of the crisis for the past few weeks, the Centre has left the implementation of the nitty-gritties of the current lockdown to the Chief Ministers of different states.
Once again, even as the lockdown is in place, different states are scrambling to create guidelines to suit their citizens thus causing chaos and confusion. Some want stricter restrictions and some want more relaxations. Given the number of spiking cases, the Centre should have come up with clear Covid-19 testing, treatment and guidelines to curb the spread of the infection to be enforced uniformly all over the country.
With a large number of advisories being sent in by the Centre about the red, orange and green zones, hotspots and containment centres, the seamless movement of such zones from red to green becomes difficult due to the miscommunication between the states and the Central government.
It is imperative that the Centre give a strict definition of containment zones so that activities of sanitization can be concentrated there. Reducing the number of zones from three to two – containment and non-containment or free zones by the Centre will also help the states to announce a staggered exit from the lockdown.
The current actions of the Centre only point out towards an effort to shift blame if anything goes wrong in the next fourteen days. It seems like a ploy to shift accountability from self to the states, even though it feels like the Centre is decentralizing power. The current lockdown strategy adopted by the Centre can be viewed as giving autonomy to the States when in fact it is only a face-saving tactic to save itself from the fire it endured in the first three phases of the lockdown.
The entire set of guidelines by the Centre may be viewed below.
(Sources – The Wire, CNBCTV18)
Related:
Labour laws and rights in peril in India?
How setting aside party politics can help India in the battle against Covid-19
Aarogya Setu app in hot water due to MHA’s order of mandatory downloads