Lockdown was supposed to flatten the curve and break the pandemic spread. It was also supposed to buy time for the government to upgrade the healthcare system and prepare for the worst. But any government can upgrade the healthcare system only within its financial capacity.
It seems that after around 3–4 months of lockdown neither of these happened. After lockdown we are at a worse situation than how it was before. But it did shatter the economy and pushed majority of the population to go into a financial struggle even for daily living. Businesses are still struggling with cash flow problems and many who had loans are wondering what to do when daily cashflow has reduced considerably.
Three months of lockdown did not do much good, now we have proof that it’s not a solution to the pandemic. It just delays things. People must learn to live with this, take enough precaution and practice social distancing on their own. We need to take care of our own safety and take enough steps to keep ourselves safe. If we don’t go to unnecessary places, wear masks and use sanitisers, and practice social distancing ourselves, why do we need to worry. The worry and call for a lockdown comes from the fear that a person himself is not practicing personal hygiene measures or social distancing. Half the problem is solved if we stop looking at others and practice it ourselves.
Mental health is another highly underrated area. People don’t even care to discuss about it. I strongly believe that the high numbers of inhumane and bizarre crimes and murders is a combination of mental health depletion combined with financial weakness. So many people have suicides while in quarantine in our own state itself. A society with weak mental health is the worst that can happen. People who sit without social interaction for long periods of time go mentally weak, and it is not ok to have too many unstable people in the society. But nobody cares about it as it doesn’t show up physically as a disease with symptoms or cause deaths.
Lockdown is not a solution, and we have no proof that lockdown does any good to stop the spread of the pandemic. We were in lockdown from March to early June. What was the result? Proves that we need to take care to keep ourselves safe. Imposing another lockdown might delay the inevitable for a little while, but for sure it will take away comfortable livelihood from a lot of people and break the economy even more.
Geethu Sivakumar
#NoMoreLockdowns #covid19 #lockdown #coronavirus #business #economy #india
