Countries all around the world are facing massive recessions in their economy due to this current pandemic. In India, several malls, hotels, restaurants, places of worship and numerous offices, outside containment zones, opened on the 8th of June in order to cope with the nation’s economic situation.
The government decided it was in the best interest of the nation to ease restrictions as experts claimed that the lockdown was getting simply infeasible. Gautam Menon, a professor and researcher on models of infectious disease claimed that "Beyond a point, it's hard to sustain a lockdown that has gone on for so long - economically, socially and psychologically” and this was echoed by the 1.38 billion citizens of the country. This forced the government to make this brave decision and allow people to leave their homes.
“Things are much better now as malls and several shopping complexes have reopened. In two weeks, we expect more people to come out of their houses. July onwards things will be much better,” said Naveen Khemka, CEO South Asia, MediaCom. Right now, its not just countries facing a money problem but people as well. Opening malls to increase spending may be ineffective because people may want more of their income to be spent on household necessities
This virus has made the world feel uncertain about what could come next. The re-opening of shopping malls and airports causes more public interaction, isn't this what we were trying to avoid in the first place?
Reopening the country from lockdown is bound to bring more people to hospitals than before as Covid-19 suspects and is only set to add to the misery of the nation’s medical services. Many have even questioned the timing of this supposed ‘unlock’ as India witnessed a spike in Covid cases and registered numbers of 10,000+ for 4 consecutive days leading to the day of the unlock.
Is this really what we should be doing?Everyone has their own take on whether the government made the right decision or not. Feel free to send us your views on this important national issue!
Writer: Anaya Parekh
17/06/2020
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