Srinagar | WTNS | Altaf Hussain | May 18: The second phase of the malignant virus has proved to be much more disastrous than the first one. It on the face of it seems that life is coming to an end now. Because in the manner the new mutant wave of the disease is putting lives of people in lacks on a ventilator every day, throttling one to death with a Life’s last cry ‘I am chocking’ . The powers that be feel incapable in any way to apprehend the far-apart tentacles of the deadly virus , having only sole anti-covid option on table ‘ Lockdown’.
Reporter Altaf Hussain moved to seek valuable opinions from some Kashmir based experts and activists on submitting, ‘ Is complete lockdown a good decision keep the drastic peak of covid cases in view, additionally the livelihood matter of the majority of people depending on a day’s labor?
Eesar Mehdi (IR scholar)
India in general and Kashmir, in particular, is in a crucial stage at this moment in terms of the number of COVID cases, as well as the ability of our health care system to deal with COVID-infected people who need emergency hospitalization. So, I believe that a longer lockdown is not a good idea. Since the economy is being seriously hit, and other economic sectors are also heavily impacted, which ensures the livelihood of the majority of daily wage laborers. When we are saying that the daily lives of people are to be considered, we are not taking any care of those who are laborers or subaltern. They eat when they work. We have to take care of that. However seeing the condition, I think lockdown is a good idea; it must be done in phases. We should not prolong it, because we can’t survive a longer lockdown particularly the lower rung of our society.
Javeed Ali ( Freelance Writer)
Well, Doctors have declared that the virus is airborne now. If we go for the complete shutdown, it won’t prevent the impact of a virus getting people infected. The best way to halt the severity of the pathogen is to adopt the special health-care needs and requirements from covid-testing to vaccination and to follow the advisories of health experts by letter & spirit. This can ensure disease prevention. I personally believe that lockdown is not going to do anything; despite the lockdown being availed currently, the caseload keep on surging. There is a spike in casualties which reveals that lockdown is not yielding its desired results. We simply need to follow SOPs religiously particularly social distancing and usage of masks and sanitizers.
We cannot keep business shut endlessly as people are suffering financially particularly daily wagers. They are starving and we have to provide them daily necessities to sustain their lives. Situation is getting worse despite the lockdown, therefore we have to think out of box now to keep daily chores going while containing the virus. Individually, we all have to abide by the basic requirements to stop the spread of virus.
Syed Altaf Musvi (KAS officer)
Opting for any lockdown option is not a solution, restricting the movement of public to avoid gatherings is. Gatherings can transmit the virus to others. Govt must provide immuno modulators to all.Coronavirus (CoV) are a large family of virsues from the nature of which it has severely impacted human health. But how long we can restrict the movement of people when majority of them are surviving on a day labour. so, complete lockdown is not an option. What govt should do is to temporarily educate the people on TVs and radios ,and provide some incentives to the households through online mode to gain confidence of the public will give some relief.
As per WHO there are four levels of transmission in the world . There are countries or local areas with:
- No cases reported.
- Sporadic cases.
- Clusters of cases (grouped in place and time)
- Community transmission.
I think we fall in 4th category
In case of that lack down for a month is must. The option of longer lockdown could make the situation people worse than the covid virus itself.
Sanna Bhat ( Writer)
It could be a very good decision but only if complete lockdown is imposed for at least a month and during which about 80% of population is vaccinated and underprivileged families are taken care of by govt.
Abrar ul Hassan ( Researcher)
No, I personally would not argue for the ‘ lockdown narrative’. The data in the past year on complete lockdown has shown that the lower strata/working class is negatively affected by it and state is not helpful to their day to day life too. Middle class too is very much affected by this, however not as much as working class. Covid 19 has shown us that we have to have balance of shutdowns (like on weekends where cycle of infection rate is broken down) and working life. And we have to live with it untill all the population is fully vaccinated. That seems uphill task for the governments around the world particularly Southern countries.
Rahil Hussain ( UPSC aspirant)
Keeping in view the surge in daily cases, lockdown is need of the hour, but mere lockdown isn’t an option to prevent the spread of this virus, but at least it can break the chain and will certainly reduce the number of cases to a greater extent.
On the other side, the valley has-been witnessing a financial crunch since the abrogation of Article 370 and imposing the complete lockdown for consecutive 3 years too is a matter of greater concern. Long in short, if the gatherings are stopped, sops are followed strictly, huge processions are temporarily banned, there is no need to put a complete lockdown
Samiya Bint Nazir (Columnist)
The decision of going for a full lockdown to apprehend the life-threatning virus is a wise decision if only the administration make certain that basic amenities to people are at their disposal, and primary medical services at their doorstep. Because we see now people dying in home-quarantine. Otherwise the total lockdown would aggravate the situation to get more worse as people are yet to come into terms with the spontaneous shutdown during the first wave of the malignant virus. The initial phase had hit every section of the society ; more badly is hitting the second wave given the multiplication of the infection and subsequent death rate of covid patients. So keeping all these things in view, we must argue for the lockdown in a phased manner.
