OUTLOOK ON INDIAS WAY OF DEALING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The outbreak of COVID-19 is new to mankind and its unprecedented spread in the whole world has caught the countries off guard in its inattentive attitude towards dealing with such a large pandemic. India is drawing learning from the 2008 financial crisis of 2008 to be financially less affected during this uncommon time. The crisis has shaken the economic position of many countries, however, the steps and decisions taken by the Indian government to break the chain of Covid-19 are highly commendable. Had the government not decided to lock down the whole country in time, it would have a serious repercussion on the lives of the citizens.

The central, state, and local authorities are bound to implement extreme precautionary measures to fight the epidemic as even WHO is clueless about the certainty of the timeline of its curtailment.

Further, the outbreak has constrained the government at all levels to impose various restrictions on the population of the country as an endeavor to curb the spread of the virus within their borders. Firstly the attempt was made by bringing 21-day lockdown as an extraordinary measure across the nation under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Due to the continuous spread of the virus, the lockdown period as a far-reaching measure has been extended till 3rd April for the time being.

The decision was undoubtedly necessary taking into account the size of the population of the country, the available healthcare infrastructure, and the apathetic or nonchalance attitude of some of the people towards previous directions and advisory issued by the Government as well as health officials. However, a common man is still unaware of the extent of laws and regulations, and most importantly the consequences of violating these laws.

The state governments invoked The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, a special law to combat the outbreak which empowers them to take measures to halt the spread by means of enforcing temporary regulations as it deems fit to prevent the spread any further. Similarly, the Central Government in a bid to ensure consistency in the measures adopted to contain the spread as well as to bring uniformity along with the lines of implementations made by the States invoked its powers under the Disaster Management Act. The Act has enabled the Central Government to issue advisory/form guidelines at the national level in an attempt to tackle the continuous spread of the pandemic.                                                   

Thus, given the present situation worldwide, the Central and State Governments are duly empowered to curtail the rights of the citizens (freedom of movement) by taking appropriate corrective measures as long as public health demands. Bearing in mind the utmost importance of maintenance of public health and order, the measures put are reasonable restrictions and are constitutionally valid.