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Police have to be a part of Covid-19 containment strategy, says expert
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Shamika Ravi, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution said that both in cases of maintaining the lockdown and in the scenario where it is lifted, the police are needed.
As India grapples with the Covid-19 crisis, the government has categorised areas based on the spread of the disease. There are hotspots, which have been turned into containment zones, where no movement in allowed.
Experts have lauded the government’s decision to announce a lockdown to contain the spread of the disease and deploy a containment strategy in hotspots. The police are very important part of that strategy, said Shamika Ravi, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Ravi said that both in cases of maintaining the lockdown and in the scenario where it is lifted, the police are needed.
“When we say calibration, basically it means that we have identified the hotspots. These hotspots require a kind of confinement and containment strategy. But beyond these hotspots, we know that there are approximately 320 districts which are untouched,” said Ravi.
“Given the interdependence across districts, movement of people and goods and services, we are not going to return to 100 per cent till the entire country is free. But it will help a lot if we begin to lift the lockdown in an informed way, at least in those places which seem to be unaffected,” she said.
“Then there are those areas which are in the middle - there are cases but those are not spreading. But one thing is clear, all this is law and order situation. The police have to be a part of the containment strategy,” added Ravi.
Explaining it further, she said, “There are serious externalities for others around you, and for the economy. It requires a heightened sense of public responsibility. That’s where effective containment will require local administration to really mobilise all the manpower that is available.”
