The lock-down will not work. It cannot UNLESS it is accompanied by food security measures. Too many people have no choice but to leave their homes if they want to eat. And if they have to choose between the risk of dying by hunger or by covid, they'll choose covid.
The millions of people on the streets during every (even partial) lockdown should tell us that much. We are not yet at economic levels of stock-and-consume for the majority of the population. For most people, therefore, defying the lockdown is a necessity.
The 18-item food kit that Kerala provided is a good thing to copy, for any state that wants to implement a lockdown. It's the only fair and ethical way to do it. And it might have some impact in slowing the spread of the virus. Anything else is activity without achievement.
Criminalising poverty is deeply unfair. It casts victims as villains, and allows a higher measure of apathy and hostility to the poor to set in among the better off classes. Governments can and should do better than to choose such step-function options.
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