Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Indians to help out with a `Janata Curfew’. We are familiar with a regular curfew where the might of the law and police exercise legal options so that people remain confined to their houses. `Janata Curfew’ is where people co-operate themselves and stay indoors on a voluntary basis, no country the size of India has ever experimented with a voluntary curfew of what is being planned. This clarion call has been given by Mr Modi in an effort to try and break the chain of transmission of the Corona Virus now at pandemic proportions, at least slow its march in India.
If people help with this social distancing measure then there is a possibility that the infections could be confined to small pockets where it can be controlled and contained. If 1.3 billion Indians can help with the 14 hour Janata curfew and if they co-operate then we can try to break the chain of transmission.
But this 14 hours will certainly not help in breaking the back of the pandemic in India, but it will help the government estimate the mood of the nation. Ultimately India must brace for a longer and sustained `Janata Curfew’ which can be called a kind of an Indian version of a lock down. `Janata Curfew’ a longer version could be a way to buy more time and help in plateauing of the infection. But `Janata Curfew’ causes pain to people and inflicts harm to the economy. But is this the bitter pill to swallow to save many people from worse consequences.
From: New Frontiers in Science & Development
Dated: March 21, 2020
Location: ICMR, New Delhi
Titled: “Janata Curfew or the Peoples Curfew”, is there real science behind it?
By: Pallava Bagla

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