Police forces across India have been handling their functions of maintenance of public order and other duties as best as their resources, training and the prevailing political dispensation would permit. Enforcing a lockdown has been a whole new ball game for which the police were neither equipped nor trained, much less prepared. However, in the absence of any other agency to perform this job, the responsibility fell in the lap of the police.
The initial days of lockdown witnessed instances of police highhandedness which cannot be justified even in the context of their anxiety to ensure strict compliance. This led to loud criticism from aggrieved citizens. In contrast, after the bad press, during the tapering phase of the lockdown, police have come in for much praise from the media, government and civil society for the numerous acts of service and empathy rendered to different cross-sections of society. The picture of the brave Head Constable of Punjab Police stopping lockdown violators at the risk of his arm being severed will be etched in our memory for a long time. That more than 1,000 policemen across the country have tested Covid-19 positive is proof that as ‘first respondents’, they have played a major role in our fight against Covid-19. Indian policemen have endangered their personal safety and those of their families in the call of duty, often working round the clock without relief or a break.
The lockdown has also particularly demonstrated the ‘love-hate’ relationship of the Indian police with the citizens! When one compared notes with friends from developed countries with much higher numbers of Covid-19 cases and mortality than India, one was told that the role of the police in enforcing the lockdown in those countries was minimal and that the government’s orders and protocols were complied with by citizens, in varying degrees, on their own.
Migrants
The travails of ordinary citizens during the lockdown, and particularly the miserable plight of migrant labourers across the country, show that the dramatic announcement to impose a countrywide lockdown with just a four-hour notice did more harm than good, both to the migrant labourers and to our fight to arrest Covid-19. At least, a 48-hour notice would have enabled the police and administration to make plans for enforcing it, besides providing an opportunity to the migrant labourers to choose whether to return to their villages or stay back at the urban centres braving the lockdown. It may be possible for the urban middle class to somehow cope with such sudden decisions of the government but not for the millions of daily wage earners whose livelihoods are precarious at the best of times and dependent on daily labour.
The series of controversies overfeeding and providing dry rations at the camps, the despicable scenes of migrants being disinfected and provided biscuits and water bottles, reminiscent of the slaves in ancient Rome, the unedifying debate over “to pay or not to pay” their train fare and the flip flop over cancellation and restoration of trains for their travel and the deaths by accidents, hunger and exhaustion must have surely destroyed their faith in the government and in the rest of us. Migrant labour being locked up in camps was not only counterproductive in fighting the pandemic but was repugnant to one’s conscience. A 48-hour notice would have helped the state governments and the NGOs to conserve scarce resources and their efforts. The administration would not have been distracted from their core function of epidemic control. Governments and society as a whole have failed the migrants after squeezing them out for their selfish development goals.
Economy
Experts say that the world will have to live with the pandemic for some more time to come. It makes sense to open up the economy smartly and expeditiously so that livelihoods are not destroyed permanently, without of course losing focus on controlling the pandemic through stringent measures. It makes sense to declare wards or even smaller affected units as ‘Containment Zones’ so that economic activity can take place in the rest of the country. Restoration of intra-state and inter-state transport should also be done in a calibrated manner to ensure that the ‘supply chain’, so critical for economic activity, functions.
Lessons
It is time that we learnt our lessons from the hardships of the lockdown and the pandemic. The state and central governments should make substantial budget allotments for healthcare, particularly for the poor, and drastically improve infrastructure. Comprehensive labour reforms with a focus on migrant labour should be brought about with a huge welfare bias so that migrants lead a life of dignity and are encouraged to serve the cause of urban India. It is time to jettison the doctrine of ‘Yuddha kale, shastrabhyasa’.
(The writer is a former Director-General and Inspector General of Police, Karnataka)