Thread by @chidiya_

Back to the thread :
As India witnessed a record-breaking surge of COVID-19 cases, state and central governments scrambled to find appropriate responses to handle this health crisis. Many state governments have employed lockdowns and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) 1/n

Interventions initially adopted by states ranged from complete lockdown to no restrictions, with many states imposing combinations of partial lockdowns and night curfews. Using information from government orders, websites & media reports, we collated data on the nature of NPIs2/n

We categorised them into seven categories depending on severity of the combined interventions. These are reported in the map 3/n

By April 26, 2021, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Jharkhand imposed full lockdowns. Large states like UP, Bihar, & MP had implemented their own combinations of lockdowns, restrictions, & night curfews in varying degrees across districts. 4/n

Despite this variation, however, the map indicates that a large proportion of the country has been under some form of NPI since the second week of April 2021. Furthermore, stricter restrictions were implemented in May. 5/n

With caveats on measurement of covid deaths, I have been able to demonstrate, using district level variation in interventions between March and October 2020, show that decentralized NPI restrictions were effective in slowing down the rate of COVID deaths. DM for full paper! 6/n

However, the widespread use of such measures without appropriate support & relief packages, undermines several grave economic & wellbeing problems. 7/n

Such policies severely strain household incomes and livelihoods, and in the absence of state assistance, the economic costs of such measures are borne entirely by households. 8/n

Beyer et al show that lockdowns drastically reduced economic activity. Lockdowns have additional costs for vulnerable populations. Eg. Ravindran and Shah (2020) show that cases of domestic violence increased in districts with severe restrictions. 9/n @Manisha_econ @saravana_econ

The biggest toll of 2020 lockdown was deaths caused from wage-loss. At least 971 people, likely an undercount, died because of lockdown induced hunger, loss of livelihood, lack of medical care, and accidents caused by unsafe traveling. 10/n @CB_Aman
@_kanikas_ @thej @anhsurk

Following outrage about the unjustifiable costs of drastic lockdown measures, the Finance Ministry announced a relief package that was far from sufficient to deal with the humanitarian crisis last year. 11/n

Not only was the government’s narrative about the size of the relief package misleading (citizens response to FM’s relief package), this amount was measly in comparison to aid packages announced by other countries that imposed lockdowns (Ghosh, 2020). 12/n @prkghosh @Ideas4India

Crucially, these measures did not address the needs of vulnerable population groups like pregnant and lactating women, the elderly, migrant and construction workers. 13/n @road_scholarz @anmol_smnch

Numerous surveys last year also revealed falling incomes and economic distress and underscored the importance of public services and wider social security measures. @meghnay3 scroll.in/article/971785… 14/n

Then and now, India needed to put to use the existing machinery of the welfare state, by universalizing & expanding the reach of extant social security programs (Dreze, 2020). These programs include pensions, the Public Distribution System, and MGNREGA. 15/n

Khera (2020) also provided a roadmap to reach vulnerable groups with cash and in-kind assistance, that does not rely on the exclusionary machinery of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication. 16/n @road_scholarz
@anmol_smnch

In May, TN announced financial support of Rs 4000 to all rice ration card holders. Delhi announced its relief package. Although useful, this announcement came 4 weeks of lockdown & innumerous SOS calls later. Meanwhile, the central govt turned a blind eye to the crisis. 17/n

As the third wave is incoming, govts need to be proactive in ensuring food security. This can be done by ensuring a minimum of 2 cooked meals at feeding centres such as that Aanganwadis & govt schools. Community kitchens in Jharkhand, TN, Kerala, provide models to emulate. 18/n

Implement proposals for urban employment guarantee scheme (Dreze) @Ideas4India. Govts can devise plans to ensure wage compensation to workers in the unorganized sector in rural (using MGNREGA lists) & urban areas (using the machinery of Unorganized Sector Welfare Boards). 19/n

It also needs to be ensured that landlords cannot evict tenants who are unable to pay rent due to loss of income and good health. @StrandedWorkers 20/n

The second wave has also seen the emergence of large donation drives & mutual aid efforts. Much of these donations were focused on remedying oxygen shortages. Orgs engaged in relief work report that primary demands are for food and ration. idronline.org/covid-19-donor…[...] 21/n

As the wave itself made its way away from cities and into rural areas, these needs for food and social security became more pronounced albeit less visible, with dwindling public attention on the health crisis. 22/n @BahujanEcon

The central govt didnt use existing welfare infrastructure to provide immediate relief to households threatened by the risk of falling sick. These households are incurring huge out of pocket health expenditures on health and also lost incomes and jobs due to the lockdown 23/fin