I read the article 'Vilifying lockdown is a move by the Govt to cover up its incompetence' by Nida Usman Chaudhry published in nayadaur.tv and beg to disagree with the writer.
Nida was strongly critical of the statement of Prime Minister Imran Khan, ''Elite ne faisla kar liya saare mulk ke liye'' (the elite have decided for the rest of the country), and she has strongly supported the lockdown as being necessary in view of the corona pandemic.
I had earlier written an article titled, 'The danger of corona virus has been greatly exaggerated'. In that, I mentioned that many more people die of other infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, flu, dengue and other ailments like diabetes, heart attacks etc, apart from those who die of car accidents etc, than those who die, or will die, of coronavirus.
Only about 2 per cent of those who are infected by corona die of it, the rest recover.
Moreover, only about 1000 people have died of corona so far in India, and about 327 in Pakistan. In contrast, USA with one third the population of India has had 65,770 deaths due to it. This seems to indicate that people in the Indian subcontinent have far greater immunity to the disease than Americans or Europeans. So its danger has been greatly exaggerated.
The lockdown declared by the Indian Prime Minister on March 24, to be effective from midnight the same day, was a knee jerk reaction and a decision taken in a hurry, without wide consultation with scientific and administrative experts, and without adequate advance notice to the people, and was an incorrect decision, in my opinion.
It was initially announced for 3 weeks, then extended by another 3, and now by another 2, till 17th May. We do not know what will happen thereafter.
The latest order of the Indian Govt divides the country into 3 zones, red, orange and green. The red zone which has the largest number of coronavirus cases will have total lockdown, the orange zone which has somewhat less will have some restrictions removed, while the green zone which has very few or no cases will have still fewer restrictions.
I think that the red, orange, green zone division is unworkable.
In my article 'End this lockdown' published in punjabtoday.in I said that 80-90% of the Indian workforce, i.e. 40-45 crore people, is in the informal/unorganised sector of our economy. These are daily wagers, migrants etc who work every day to eat every day. Without work, they and their families will starve.
This lockdown has deprived them of their livelihood. Many migrants in cities, who have no work, started trekking on foot with their families to their villages hundreds of kilometers away, as there were no trains or buses running. Many died on the way. Many more are dying, and will surely die due to this ill advised and inhuman lockdown. Many people from red zones will surely trek to some green or orange zones in order to survive. So this zoning cannot be enforced strictly in practice.
I am afraid if this lockdown is not immediately lifted up, there will soon be food riots due to large scale starvation, and consequential civil disorders.
One is reminded of the French Revolution of 1789 of which shortage of bread was one of the causes, the February Revolution in Russia in 1917 caused by women demonstrating for food on streets of St Petersburg, or the great Bengal Famine of 1943 which killed millions of people.
I agree with that statement of Imran Khan and disagree with Nida. Thousands may die of corona if there is no lockdown, but millions will surely die of starvation if there is a long lockdown. The lockdown is misconceived, and must be lifted immediately