Challenges of lockdown and supply of essentials

Yet another unprecedented lockdown but this time the fear of COVID-19 spread has put to test the wisdom of the people keeping in view the expert opinions of the health specialists. In lockdowns the people of Kashmir have not only survived but even thrived as a society despite the government curbs. This time we are bound to collapse if we don’t show wisdom in our response to the situation triggered by the fast spread of COVID-19 as only people with foreign travel history has resulted in the spread of infection to more than ten persons. While the government in this part of the works makes people plead for curfew passes, medicines and food, but it also asks to cooperate in implementation of measures put in place for containing the spread of COVID-19. Since no two parallels can be drawn between the usual lockdown enforced in Kashmir last year (2019) or once each time in 2008,2010 and 2016 , the people of Kashmir time face the challenges of confining themselves to their homes and taking the help of minimum resources with total focus on personal hygiene . Like the previous lockdowns, the present unprecedented lockdown too would cause irreparable damage to the already shattered economy of Kashmir, but this time concern is not the economy but the control and containment of the fast spread of COVID -19 as any mishandling and non cooperation with the government could push us into a catastrophe from which we may or may not recovered for decades . As people have a situational compulsion to visit chemist shops and grocery stores, the purpose of the lockdown getting defeated is consequential and very obvious and in such a situation the possibility of the coronavirus spread showing unprecedented increasing trends can be countered only by the volunteer efforts of the people in cooperation with the government .
The continuous flow of goods is essential to tide over the difficulties of locked down populations but a proper mechanism in cooperation with the volunteers has to be put in place for restraining the movement of people at grocery shops, retail drug outlets and banks.
Though government’s decision to drop two months ration at the doorsteps of people is a welcome step, but volunteers too will have to come out for taking the goods of daily use at the people’s doorsteps for restraining their movement to markets, banks and ration depots as using 2-5 volunteers for taking the goods of daily use for a residential area of 50 families once a week would boost the attempts of restraining the movement of people in residential areas and as well as markets. For the fight against the virus to succeed, there is an urgent need to fix the supply chain method in every residential area of every city, town and a village. By all standards of understandabilities the continuous flow of goods is essential to tide over the difficulties of locked down populations but a proper mechanism in cooperation with the volunteers has to be put in place for restraining the movement of people at grocery shops, retail drug outlets and banks.