Humane ‘Lockdown’ Or Draconian House Arrest Denying Food & Medicines ?

By Asoka N.I. Ekanayaka –MARCH 29, 2020

Prof. Asoka N.I. Ekanayaka

Nobody denies the need for a rigorous ‘lockdown’ to prevent transmission of the Coronavirus from person to person and so arrest the spread of the disease. However it is necessary to make a sharp distinction between a carefully calculated ‘lockdown’ with a human face that constrains people to stay at home, and a callous draconian ‘lockdown’ which reflecting a foolish tunnel vision by the authorities  is cruelly insensitive  to other basic needs essential for human survival. The extended curfews running into several days in Sri Lanka if not weeks ( as in India) are an example of the latter, where people might well wonder (allowing for a bit of hyperbole) whether they are expected to slowly die in their homes sans food and drugs rather than quickly die of Coronavirus in a hospital ! Indeed if it came to such a macabre Hobson’s choice I suppose a good case can be made for arguing that the latter would be preferable to the former. But that is beside the point.

Anyone who watched the recent speech by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing a series of tough measures to ‘lockdown’ the UK could not fail to observe the contrast between a sensitive head of state respectful of the painful implications of the ‘lockdown’ for his people, and the clumsy ham-fisted approach of the Rajapaksa government which thought nothing of slapping down an indefinite curfew oblivious to the desperate need of families to purchase essential food items and medicines. 

Sadly it has been reported that Boris Johnson himself has just tested positive for Covid-19. Johnson is a good man and sadly in this world bad things happen to good people and vice versa. It is possible that millions of beleaguered citizens across some of the 195 sovereign states in the world might now and again entertain the guilty wish that their own evil rulers had contacted Corona virus in place of a good man like Boris Johnson ! In the event Johnson exhorted  his countrymen to stay at home with people being allowed to leave home only for four  extremely limited purposes which included “shopping for basic necessities as infrequently as possible”. Otherwise the severe restrictions  put in place on community life were of an order that would make it useless to leave home anyway. 

By contrast the government in Sri Lanka recently took the crude option of declaring a continuous curfew for 3 days leading to an explosive build up of public need to replenish domestic stocks of food and medicines. Needless to say the dam burst when the curfew was lifted for a few hours, leading to thousands spilling on to the street and languishing in long queues outside shops in a manner that was entirely counterproductive to the original intention that the curfew should limit human contact. Furthermore the stress, frustration and sheer physical exhaustion of standing for hours struggling to buy much needed supplies of groceries and drugs in the hot sun could lower resistance and put people at risk of other health problems, quite apart from the enforced risk of catching Corona virus by standing in a crowd. 

And needless to say there is not a ghost of a chance that ordinary citizens caught up in the furious struggle for basic necessities will enjoy the consolation of seeing their high and mighty rulers  and cabinet  ministers sharing their travails in queues and crowds. Neither would they see the faces of those who having recently handed in their nominations for the 2020 election would in due course be begging for their vote. Nor are such queues ever adorned here and there by a splash of colour representing the vociferous saffron robed elite ! No, in our culture these are the privileged classes who will always be well fed and medicated  whatever the curfews and ‘lockdowns’.

That was last week. But worse was to come. We now have the horror of an ‘indefinite curfew’ where people are permanently imprisoned in their homes with no freedom to go out and purchase basic food and medicines. This is totally unacceptable as a population strategy whatever the imperatives in Corona virus control. The call for people to use ‘whatsapp’ on their smart phones and order their food and medicines is laughable. It may be good enough for the sophisticated rich and the affluent middle classes, but as a population strategy it is cruel and impractical. It reflects the trashing around of an incompetent government that is out of touch with reality, with faint echoes of “if they have no bread, let them eat cake” attributed to Marie Antoinette !

Even so in the early days the unsustainability of Indefinite curfews that imprison people in their homes without food was shown in the police turning a pragmatic blind eye to those few citizens who had the temerity to venture out and drive around during the curfew looking to garner a few provisions from the odd trader here and there who may have something to sell. But it would seem that now the government has ruthlessly clamped down on that aberration as well.

So what is the solution ? The right way is to follow the British example and shut down everything with the solitary exception of supermarkets pharmacies and small shops selling groceries fruits and vegetables. These should be open from  early morning until late evening as usual or even longer. There being no curfew, shoppers for basic food items and medicines will spread themselves out throughout the day eliminating queues, and with no crowding  social distancing will occur naturally. With everything else shut down there would be nothing whatsoever to be gained by hanging around in public places which in any case can be discouraged with effective policing. People will naturally go back home and stay at home with adequate food and medicines  without the fear of starving to death ! The result will be an effective  ‘lockdown’ with a human face that can continue for many weeks if necessary. It will be conducive to civil peace without the build up of public discontent, depression, frustration and fear that could in the worst case scenario spill over into food riots as people begin to defy curfews and storm food outlets in desperation. 

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