The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, gave a speech yesterday where he announced that the lockdown is being extended to the 3rd of May. The lockdown first started on 22 March.
So the current total length would be 6 weeks. Wew, pretty long huh? Well, the thing is that more likely than not, it is gonna be extended again. At least in my city, the capital since cases do not seem to be flattening anytime soon.
While the idea of the lockdown sounds nice, it is actually gonna result in a disaster no doubt about it. The amount of businesses that have gone down to this is just too high a number. Not to mention, a good portion of the country is made up of daily wagers, who have zero security for the future and they are all out of their jobs.
Since the number of jobs is gonna sink down naturally as the lockdown lifts up, all these now unemployed people are gonna have a real rough time getting back up on their feet. The central government seems to not care for trying to save up the economy a bit. Only the state governments have tried to help these people some so far.
On the other hand, say if the lockdown didn't happen, it would be a disaster still anyways. The medical system here is nowhere near capable enough to survive this pandemic. While the economic impacts would have been lesser that way, it would have been a huge catastrophe nonetheless.
The government basically knew there is absolutely no way the country can survive the pandemic, so they had to pull the trigger and this lockdown happened. While that may sound good and all, they had no real plans anyways and everything they are doing is just in the moment, without actually thinking about the common man.
I will keep you guys updated on the situation till the end of it, to give a view of the effects of this lockdown on the common guy.
It is a great thing that the lockdown is extended. Especially in a densely populated area like India! Hopefully India can contain this earlier than other countries!