The three week
shutdown has turned the focus on the hundreds of homeless and daily wage laborers. Many of them have migrated from different parts of the country into
the metro cities in search of livelihood. Question marks arise about their
sustenance given there is no possibility of work in the next three weeks. There
are of course vultures who want to scavenge on the living homeless and daily
wagers. There are others who too are concerned about their survival. Some
organizations are taking up work to provide free food etc. to these bottom of
pyramid group yet in the curfew it would be difficult to reach out the genuine
needy.
Some want the
government to implement a Universal Basic Income (UBI) so as to support these
families with some nominal amount. Further many living in slums, tents, pipes,
roads etc. it would be seen as an easy prey for the China virus. There are of
course some voices that have called for egress of these back into their
villages. In fact, one of the key criticism of the lockdown has been that the
governments did not allow a planned egress of these migrants struggling to find
food and shelter in the major cities like Mumbai, Delhi etc. Food canteens
opened by the government in some parts are leading to overcrowding defeating
the very purpose of the curfew in absence of social distancing.
The question however,
as the voices grow calling for egress is whether a planned egress is possible. It
would be interesting to recollect a scene from the book “The Fifth
Horseman”. In the book, Gaddaffi of Libya plants a nuclear bomb in New York
and threatens to blow up the city if Israel doesn’t withdraw from Palestinian
territories. While negotiations are on, the plans for evacuation was being
discussed. There is a particular moment to decide the modalities of evacuating
citizens from New York without creating panic. Either way, when the whole city
has to be evacuated, the panic will spread because it will create a strong
suspicion and absence of information will only fuel rumours. One method decided
for planned evacuation was to allow cars to leave in the alphabetical order of
registration numbers. There was one response to it. It can be paraphrased as ‘Do
you think the one with the registration number starting with Z will wait for
his or her turn?’ the panic will create a stampede as each will seek to be the
first to leave the city as it about to explode.
In the context
of China virus, everyone was becoming aware of its destructive potential. Already,
people were fleeing Kerala back to their states. In fact around 2000 plus
people seemed to have left Kerala to North East as this crisis spread one
single day. Similarly, there were huge crowds in the stations of Mumbai and
Pune waiting to travel back to UP, Bihar and Bengal. A couple of specials were
run with huge crowds. Some videos floating about in social media show the
crowds waiting to board Pune Patna Express at Pune station. In fact perhaps
this was the biggest reason for suspension of trains across the country. The Janata
curfew provided the best option for that. In Karnataka, there have been reports
of many trying to flee Bangalore by whatever means they get to their villages
etc. Without doubt, the bus services had to be stopped.
It is even
hazardous to imagine what would happen if any one of these hundreds carry the
dreaded Wuhan virus. They will infect no doubt their co-passengers on train
which could be around 200 per coach in the crowds. Each of these would infect
many more hundreds. Once they reach their village, they would be taking the
virus into inland and create virtual havoc. The super-spreaders might be
catastrophic for public health in states like Bihar, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Therefore if the disease had to be contained,
it had to be isolated in the few existing cities and not given an opportunity
to spread to other cities and towns and villages. Therefore, it was a decision
of something between devil and deep blue sea; a decision between frying pan and
fire. The only sensible approach seemed to be to make people stay where they
are while the authorities try to isolate and contain the virus.
Either way, the
decision would have damn it if it allows the egress, damn it if it does not
allow egress. The government had taken a decision which prima facie seems rational.
Try and contain in a region and not give smallest of the opportunities to
spread outward. The opportunity was very visible and therefore the gap had to
be plugged. Thus trains and other modes of passenger transport were stopped and
people holed up in the cities and regions where they are irrespective of the
conditions therein.
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