COVID 19 Lockdown can be effective only with Inter Agency Coordination

Checklist for Lockdown 

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation 

Disaster mitigation is all about Inter Agency Coordination or IAC to bring relief to the common Man. According to Disaster Risk Reduction Theory the very first stage of IAC involves the following:

1st stage:

1.         Search and Rescue

2.         Recovery

3.         Food security

4.         Water supply

5.         Sanitation and hygiene

6.         Combating breakout of epidemic

7.         Mitigate crime

8.         Counselling

9.         Effective communication

10.       Disposal of dead

Given that we are in a Pandemic situation and not a natural calamity like earthquake or flood, issues like search and rescue are not relevant for the current Pandemic. Instead of Search and Rescue the importance is on containment of the populace to prevent spread of the disease / virus.

“Lockdown” is a whole new concept introduced to the COVID 19 infected world after the World Health Organisation of the United Nations Organisation declared a Pandemic on 11.03.2020.  But, to sustain the living, locking them down in containment zones or buildings will hardly serve any purpose in spread of the virus.  The invisible virus needs no doors and walls to protect it from spreading. Suspending livelihoods hinged more on the dictatorial aspects of governance and sustaining vulnerable populations became a dramatic no show in India. On the other hand migrant population who were disallowed to work suffered loss of income and wages without alternate sources of livelihood and food security.

There have also been gaping holes or yawning gaps in the administration of the Lockdown. Disaster Mitigation / Disaster Risk Reduction or Disaster Management – it is all about Plan B. 

Going in to Lockdown 3.0 or 4.0 or whatever it is numbered as … Bangalore Urban and Rural districts are going into Lockdown starting 8.00 p.m. on 14^th July 2020. But are we / Government prepared for this Lockdown?

Karnataka – is not even geared to its own ilk of natural calamities:  hydrometeorological calamities like droughts, floods, flash floods, desertification and landslides. So the Flu hit them in the face like never before. 

Before we go into Lockdown on 14^th July 2020 here’s a to do list for the Government of Karnataka:

Appointment of a Volunteer Task Force: One volunteer task force of 10 members should be ideally  appointed to serve 1 road in every ward or upto a population of 500 members population maximum. This task force must comprise of 3 NSS volunteers + 1 home guards personnel + 1 paramedical nurse + 1 interning doctor, 1 statistician / one volunteer of the neighbourhood who can take responsibility and deliver reliably, 1 Anganwadi / Asha worker, i.e about 10 members to knock door to door every morning: This task force needs to become the most effective connect between the State / Government and the citizen.

Its ‘task’ should include meeting all the needs of every household’s every member – be it doing non-financial banking services, postal despatches and pick-ups, bill payments, purchase and supply of groceries, medicines, doorstep testing of blood pressure, blood sugar, body temperatures, making a list of medical assistance needed and servicing these the next day. If these vital services are fulfilled Lockdown can be fulfilled. That will help increase rate of doubling of the spread of the disease; it helps in prophylactic approach to disease control or in plain parlance it means treatment - planned, offered and delivered. It can also help in survey of the recovery and death rates.  

Instead of Search and Rescue, in the case of this pandemic, the task force has to identify the infected person, call for an ambulance (depending on the severity of the infection and the need to isolate / start treatment), and transfer the identified infected person to a hospital. The neighbourhood volunteer must be given access to the hospital to ensure that the person gets admission in a COVID 19 designated hospital.

If a family member has lost a loved one to COVID 19, the task force members must enquire about disposal of the dead bodies, and make a list of things to be done / done for disposal of mortalities.

One task force member must make a list of all groceries needed by every family and ensure that the list of groceries is delivered the next day. This grocery list must include perishables like green leafy vegetables, milk and milk products, (and the task force must make suitable arrangements for refrigeration of the grocery list). Apart from grocery list, this same task force member must also make a list of those people who lack food security and must direct them to a community kitchen nearest to the house.  

Paramedical services:

This is the right day and age to deliver door delivery of paramedical services: Test, test and test, vouches the World Health Organisation. A 10 member task force like the one outlined above can achieve the goal of testing at every door every morning. This will not only yield an accurate demographic display of the spread of COVID 19, but also helps in planning logistics for treatment, management, mathematical modelling, planning, implementation and so on…  

Another member of the task force must make a list of the deficit in clothing and housing and must coordinate with the Ward Corporator /Panchayat representative / member + MLA + MP of the constituency to make sure that their needs are met.   

The Asha worker must enlist water consumption patterns, per capita toilet usage, supply hand sanitisers, diapers bzw. sanitary towels, gloves, testing strips, and medicines to every household based on enlisted surveys. The Asha worker must also spray disinfectants on every surface in every household as prescribed in SOP or standard operating procedure.

The paramedical nurse in the task force must take temperature readings, conduct blood tests for COVID 19, blood sugar and hypertension, make thorough lists, administer vaccines / injections, supply medications and submit to the list to the Government every day.

Crime has largely come down, but if a home guards personnel, or a Beat policeman / police woman smiles at every household every morning, it instills a lot more faith in governance and criminal justice system.  That makes the job of a cop lot less thankless too… if s/he gets a smile from one’s wards daily.

If the task force can have a mental health worker in the team, it will be good, if not, contact details of a counsellor who can respond to the calls of the community has to be made available to every household.

Communication and Bandwidth:

The Government has to release 5 TB of bandwidth per capita   during the current pandemic; after that the surviving population will be used to that much bandwidth so it cannot be cut to size.  But the Government can restrict bandwidth to not so useful sites. Channels of communication must get maximum bandwidth and citizens too must not misuse extra bandwidth during the pandemic. Work From Home itself needs huge bandwidth. Emergency services need huge bandwidth. Thus binging on Netflix can wait till peace returns. Call centres must be established for different services during the Pandemic.

If all these services are in place Lockdown will be effective and spread of the Pandemic can be curbed, and the rate of spread of the disease can be slowed. That way Lockdown will serve its purpose. 

Disaster prone Andaman Nicobar Islands implement the Disaster Management Act to the T. The UT Administration is geared up for the next monster Tsunami because disaster is synonymous with Tsunami in these forlorn volcanic Islands in the Bay of Bengal 1200 kilometres away from mainland India.

Malini Shankar is photojournalist based in Bangalore and she has been trained in disaster risk reduction.