If (Life>Livelihood, Lockdown,”?”)

As I write this blog, there are still lacs of people battling for their lives and thousands have lost their lives to the pandemic. I pray that the families of these people find courage to face this difficult time. I wish my country’s healthcare infrastructure and governance had not failed you.

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Why is India against a lockdown? Many working-from-home people have been wondering why the government cannot impose another lockdown similar to 2020 and that too when the daily cases in the second wave are thrice as high as the first wave. Without going into depths of economic implications, here is my attempt to provide a contrarian view showcasing the problems faced by different sections of our society in case of a rigid lockdown.

Those who cannot afford a lockdown

Thanks to the technology “outsourcing” boom, the IT sector today employs roughly 50 lakh people directly and may be 3X that number indirectly. People employed in this sector seem to be the biggest supporters of a lockdown and a work-from-home policy. It is not difficult to understand why since there is hardly any dependence on office infrastructure ever since the advent of 4G, 5G speeds of the internet. In addition to this, since IT companies realized that there were able to save real estate costs, increase work hours of their staff by cutting down travel time, they too became advocates of working-from-home. The best part was IT companies doling out salary hikes and special Covid-19 allowances to their staff using these savings! Have the IT folks thought what would happen if they too were paid wages only if they were to attend office? Would they then actively advocate a lockdown?

There is a large section of people in India who still live on daily wages. Construction workers, drivers, small shop owners, domestic helps, street vendors, etc., are all dependent on work every day for them to have one square meal a day. This section of society is dependent on IT and other people going to their workplace, so that they can support them in turn earning their own daily bread. The images of these people returning to their villages last year with no other option to earn a living was a testimonial to the impact which a lockdown can have in our country.

Those who cannot work from home

Contrary to the IT sector are sectors such as agriculture, banking, manufacturing, tourism, hospitality, transportation, logistics, etc which dread the idea of a lockdown. Keeping aside the top brass, most employees in these sectors do not boast of high salaries, perks or comforts of being able to work from home. Companies in these sectors had no option but to resort to layoffs and a few mindful ones decided to cut salaries instead of laying off people during the previous lockdown since there was simply no productivity and revenues had taken a hit. I know of some companies which have still not been able to fully recover from the impact of the previous draconian lockdown in 2020. People employed in these sectors have no option but to go to work if they want their livelihood to be undisturbed.

Those who are too-influential-to-care

While you might sympathize with people from the above 2 categories, we also have a 3rd group of people who we should ideally be criticizing but we find very few people doing so. I prefer to call this category of people as “too-influential-to-care”. These people do not fall into the category of essential workers or desperate for their livelihood. All they care about is making money and are even using the lockdown as an opportunity to better their wealth. A prime example of this is the currently ongoing Indian Premier League. At a time when Mumbai is on the verge of going into a total lockdown, permission is given to conduct 10 matches. Special privileges are given to team members and staff travelling as a part of the contingent like how they can move around from stadium to hotel even during curfew hours. There are over 1000 people who are currently working for the tournament as though they are essential workers to ensure that there are no losses incurred by the cricket board or the team owners. The state and central machinery too is working unnecessarily to provide security, safety to these Nero’s guests when these valuable resources could instead be deployed to fight the pandemic.

There is also 4 state assembly elections, 1 UT election and bye-elections in 18 states which are going on amidst this mayhem. Roadshows and rallies are running unabashedly with crowds in excess of a several thousands. All cautions of social distancing and wearing a mask are thrown to the wind. What was the urgency to hold these elections? After much criticism, the EC has decided to put a few curbs on the electioneering for the remaining phases of elections. The election itself will not stop and polling will continue risking million of voters’ lives as they come out of their houses and exercise their vote standing in queues.

There is an apartment complex in Bengaluru which has 700 apartments. 4 people have tested positive in the last 1 month and the area’s government health officer has declared it as a mini containment zone with no movement inside or outside for any residents, drivers, domestic helps, housekeeping staff, etc. I know that many residents would simply stop paying these workers for the period which they would not be able to render their services.

Despite 5 players, some groundsmen, tens of politicians testing positive, the governing bodies ensure that the IPL and the Indian elections juggernaut rolls on…reminding you of that one-liner, “Tuada kutta tommy, saada kutta kutta”?

Those who still have ambitions and dreams

Lockdowns kill dreams. With exams being cancelled/postponed, what happens to those students who studied and put in hard work throughout the year to realize that they would not even get a chance to compete at all. I hope the government relaxes the age restrictions which are still applicable in some exams, but, even if they do, won’t there be double the competition the following year with twice the number of students appearing and half the probability of getting selected? The batch of students who graduated in 2008–09 during the peak of the recession were considered to be the unluckiest batch until now when the batch of 2020–21 will graduate. There are cries of help from students and colleges to place their students. Two successive years of lockdowns can create a huge talent supply with no demand in the job market.

Entrepreneurs who quit their jobs and started companies (not in the food delivery, pharma, moneylending, or stock broking space) have seen their businesses plummet in the last year. The scars of the last lockdown have still not healed completely for them.

People feel that their personal dreams too are taking a beating with dream weddings being reduced to a small family only affair, planned vacations being postponed (not for the too-influential-to-care folk), etc. These can still be classified as minuscule compared to the other crisis brought about by a lockdown. As always suggested by my mother, the remedy to shrug off these disappointments is by putting ourselves in the shoes of those people who are facing far more bigger problems than we are.

Given a choice between life and livelihood, everyone would want to choose life. There is no livelihood without life but how long can one live without livelihood? There is no simple answer. Lockdowns do help break the chain during a pandemic, but they also break the livelihoods of the less privileged around us. If you read this blog, please do try to not cut wages of your drivers and domestic helps during a lockdown, do not bargain with small shop owners and street vendors, tip your Uber and Ola drivers extra and watch out for your non-WFH friends who may be secretly “masking” their financial health too.

Note: I just read the news that some governments are offering construction workers actual financial aid rather than those many “lakh crores” during the last lockdown which is a welcome news indeed.