GENRE: Voices

In a recent interview with Citizen Matters, S T Ramesh, former Karnataka DG&IGP (Director General and Inspector General of Police), had pointed out the challenges as well as the shortcomings of the police in enforcing the COVID-19 lockdown. Ramesh had opined that the police was able to reduce social contact but failed to keep essential services unhindered. We caught up with the current DG&IGP Praveen Sood for his take. Over a phone interview, Sood said that the situation with respect to COVID-19 escalated so quickly that the police were caught off-guard. There was no specific protocol to follow, and no…

There is no doubt what we are facing today is a way of life that is alien to us and it is an undeniable fact that people are frightened under the current circumstances. It is important to be well informed and follow guidelines, but some of the anxiety exhibited in the past few weeks has been disproportionate. People are paranoid about touching their own furniture. Too much information leads to difficulty in processing all the information. I believe it is important for us to stop obsessing about Coronavirus and reading Corona news through the day....people read more and interpret what…

Media reports indicate that the Centre and state governments are looking at options for a graded exit from the lockdown. This note lists certain factors to be kept in mind before deciding that strategy. The consequences of the lockdown have been felt most sharply by urban daily wage earners like street vendors, auto drivers, migrant workers, and marginalised and stigmatised communities like sex workers and transgender communities, nomadic communities who earn as they move, frontline workers engaged in cleaning and health, farmers and landless farm workers. There has been a severe impact on food security, livelihood, security and health. Besides,…

COVID-19 has caught us all unawares, but in the last few weeks Bengaluru has sprung on its feet to tackle the crisis. BBMP has set up a war room to centrally oversee the situation, police are working overtime, and so are hospitals and medical staff. Besides, innumerable citizens are doing their bit to distribute money, medicines, food and other essentials to those in need. It’s heartwarming to see how the city has come together yet again. But what we have now is an adrenaline-filled system - both formal and informal - that’s working overtime, doing whatever it takes to cope…

To lockdown or not to lockdown, that is the question. There are other questions too. To lift the lockdown totally in one go, to lift it partially, or to prepare a calibrated lifting of the lockdown, starting April 15. The pressure cooker comparison may not be far off the mark. As the lockdown continues, the slow build of pressure among people cooped up in their homes can be seen. As also the hope and anticipation of freedom. The social fallout if those hopes are dashed, are in no way predictable. The question is how to enable the gradual release of…

In this series, various individuals, citizen groups and RWAs explain how they have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis in a constructive manner. In this first part of the series, a volunteer of Whitefield Rising collective describes the measures they took. March 10, 2020, marked the seventh anniversary of the citizen movement Whitefield Rising (WR). But celebrations were muted – rather, non-existent. Anxiety and an eerie silence had gripped Whitefield as news trickled in about the arrival of COVID-19 in our neighbourhood. An MNC employee who returned from the United States via Dubai a week ago had tested positive for the…

Trained and accustomed to catching criminals, maintaining law and order and regulating traffic, there is nothing in its experience or training that qualifies the police force to deal with a contagion like COVID-19. “Curfew” is perhaps the only term in the police vocabulary that comes close to defining what the doctors have prescribed: social distancing. Little wonder then, that the police went about addressing this social/humanitarian challenge with law-and-order tools. The results were there for all to see. Citizen Matters spoke to a former head of the Karnataka State Police, S T Ramesh, about the newest challenge before the police…

Co-authored by Milind Mhaske and Meghna Bandelwar India has witnessed, dealt with and survived an outbreak of several epidemics such as swine flu, small pox, plague, dengue, hepatitis amongst many others, the most recent being the Nipah virus outbreak. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, seems to have created an unprecedented global emergency and the entire world is grappling with the challenge of curbing its spread and providing medical care to the huge numbers of people infected. India has taken measures at the Central and state level to prevent and curtail the spread of the pandemic. The city governments too are trying…

Even after 10 days of the nationwide lockdown and 12 days of the statewide lockdown, the state machinery has completely failed in ensuring food security for all. Lakhs of migrant workers, self-employed persons like street vendors, auto-drivers, etc, have been pushed towards hunger and malnutrition by the completely opaque and inhuman manner in which decisions have been made. As food supplies, gas and money run out, food security is of grave concern. Stopping free food supply through Indira Canteens is condemnable. There's complete lack of clarity in government’s plan to supply rations and cooked food. Decision to stop free food…

As the coronavirus outbreak shows no signs of abating any time soon, the economy of every nation, first world and third world, is in virtual free fall. For India too, COVID-19 is not only a public health challenge, but also an economic challenge that needs to be tackled on a war footing by the Central and state governments. Restricted cargo movement, weak supply chains, lack of liquidity in the markets, heavy cross-border movement by migrant workers and many other factors have added to the pressure on the economy. With relief packages aimed at the middle class and the poor being…