How Are Villages Handling The Lockdown? Looks Like It’s Better Than Cities
Users on social media have been sharing pictures and stories of their villages, which suggests that villages may be at the forefront of keeping the pandemic at bay.
Dinesh Singh works in a factory in Gurugram, which falls in Haryana state. On 23 March – a day after ‘junta curfew’ – Singh returned to his native village in Uttar Pradesh as his employer halted work at the factory for an indefinite period.
Singh’s decision to promptly go to his village proved to be a blessing as prime minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown only two days later, on 25 March, that led to suspension of inter-state bus and train services.
When Singh reached his village Konkera in Chaumuha block of Mathura district, he was taken to a hospital before stepping in.
Singh was asymptotic and found to be fit, and allowed to go to his home. The doctors educated him about the Coronavirus pandemic and the necessary precautions to take. Singh uses “lockdown” to describe the government diktat and “ghar-bandi” to describe his own duty as a citizen.
Singh told this correspondent over the phone that residents aren’t stepping out of their houses at all, unless for an absolutely urgent errand. “Most of us have even ration for a month and even more. In all these days, we bought vegetables only once and stored enough for a week. We washed the vegetables heavily before using them,” he said.
Between 21 and 27 March, a total of 13 residents came to the village from outside its borders, mainly from Agra city and Haryana. The gram panchayat of Konkera has been maintaining the record.
Such meticulous documentation and implementation of lockdown isn’t unique to Konkera. Users on social media have been sharing pictures and stories of their villages from across the country, which suggests that villages may be at the forefront of keeping the pandemic at bay.
Particularly in Uttar Pradesh, where migrants have travelled back in huge numbers in the past week, village units have been identifying the visitors, screening them and, if need be, even isolating them.
A UP resident recently shared on Facebook an image of his village school. His post said that those who returned from New Delhi and Kolkata have been housed in the school.
Even before they could meet their family, the local administration took them to the school and handed them a towel and a soap. The inmates of this 14-day isolation facility got food delivered to them.
“This is real India (ye hai asli Hindustan),” the post said.
In Chandraula village of Aligarh district in UP, where records say that 10 people arrived here between 18 and 26 March, regular disinfecting and sanitising of public spaces is being done.
Some villages have even barricaded their entrance to not allow outsiders to step in. In Kalli village of Sitapur district of UP, villagers have blocked the entry with wooden logs and a board that says, ‘Outsiders are not allowed’ (“baahri vyaktiyon ka pravesh varjit hai”).
In one Vandigi village of Balarampur area of Purulia in West Bengal, residents who returned from Chennai have quarantined themselves for 14 days in makeshift camps on trees, as per a report by ANI. The report says that these camps are usually used by villagers to safeguard from elephant attacks.
Such stories emerging from villages are receiving huge applause on social media, as villages are where the lakhs of migrants leaving cities amid the nationwide lockdown are landing up.
A Twitter user, Shubhendu, wrote, “
The poor & subaltern labourers like these HEROES are more thoughtful & responsible than the educated administrators like Kejriwal. Our cities have place for everyone except those who build it. What could be more heartbreaking!”
Another user, Vaishnavi Gaur, wrote:
Pramod Kumar Singh, a journalist, wrote, “These villagers are far better than certain educated, English speaking people, who masked fever by popping up Crocin in flights & then mingled freely with people.”