Where social distancing will accomplish little or nothing and the collateral damage will be horrific

[T]he desperate millions hit by Modi's brutal lockdown

When prime minister Narendra Modi announced almost two weeks ago that India’s entire population of 1.3bn people would be under lockdown for at least three weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, it was the largest restriction of movement the world had ever seen.

The consequences for India, where tens of millions live in poverty, work thousands of miles from home, often living where they work, have been cataclysmic.

. . . .

Indian economist Jayoti Ghosh described the lockdown as a disaster. 

“We have never had a situation where the government has simultaneously shut down both supply and demand, with no planning, no safety net and not even allowing the people to prepare,” she said. 

Ghosh warned that the food shortages recently reported across India would only become more severe and widespread over the next two weeks.

“They knew it would have this impact but obviously did not care,” she added. 

“Even if a lockdown this brutal is necessary, they could have arranged a week in advance for people to be able to safely travel back home. What kind of  andarrogance and insensitivity does a government have to have to give the country four hours’ notice, at night, for a lockdown that is this draconian and this brutal?”

According to experts, the lockdown will need to last for much longer than the proposed 21 days if it is to prove effective. 

While so far cases of coronavirus in India have been far lower than in Europe, the US and east Asia, with 2,902 cases and 68 deaths, there are signs of community transmission, and the spread is escalating quickly.