3 years later: How Covid pandemic and the lockdown remain fresh in memory

Three years after the Covid-19 lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Business Standard reporters went around the capital city

Ram Babu, a 67-year-old florist in downtown Conn­a­ught Place, recalls how his business went for a toss during the pandemic. He finds it challenging to put a figure to the losses he has incurred since 2020, when flowers hardly had any takers. All he remembers is that Covid-19 has been the “biggest tragedy” for his business.

A 30-something chef working at a prominent restaurant in New Delhi’s Khan Market laments that not only did customers disappear even when the outlets opened after prolonged lockdowns, but there was also the additional cost of ensuring Covid protocol including change in the seating arrangements, focusing on online delivery, calling in pest control services, and of course buying sanitisers, gloves and masks regularly. The industry numbers captured the distress in the hospitality sector during Covid.

According to the National Restaurant Association of India, the industry had shrunk 53 per cent in FY21.
 

Many retail outlets, restaurants and small vendors across the city refuse to elaborate on how Covid had impacted their business. Many of them say they are still frustrated with poor earnings.

Besides businesses, students have felt the impact of Covid-19 significantly. Viraj Joshi, a 24-year-old student who’s now doing his Master’s in Urban Planning in  Ahmedabad, narrates his struggle of being stranded in a foreign land — Vietnam in his case.

“When the first lockdown struck, I didn’t know when I could get home,” he recalls. Viraj was one of the over 3.6 million Indians who were repatriated by the government during the lockdown. He describes his experience of finishing college in online mode as “sad” and “disheartening”.

But Moin Khan, 22, an IT em­p­loyee who began his work life during Covid, has enjoyed remote working as it offers flexibility. He calls it a “beautiful thought”. At the same time, he realises the “ge­neration gap” between working face-to-face in office and behind the screen. Ritika (name changed), a data analyst in Gurugram, points out that while time management has been tough while working from home, the flexibility it offers is excellent.

There are also those who spot­ted opportunity during Covid, even if it was for a short while.  Take for instance, Ramesh Shinde (name changed), a mobile phone seller. “It was an opportunity as the demand for budget smartphones peaked with schools going online and e-commerce platforms becoming the go-to place. Consu­mers in urgent need of smartphones turned to us,” he says. It’s a different matter that the long lockdown has dented many businesses including that of Shinde’s.

According to a pandemic im­pact study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research, almost 40 per cent of male small business owners are no longer self-employed.

Neeraj Nischal, additional professor in the Department of Medi­cine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, talks about how the healthcare system across the globe encountered enormous challen­ges during the pandemic. Coming to the present, Nischal says there’s nothing to panic even as the cases surge. “The majority of us are vaccinated and have hybrid immunity,” he says.

On that note, as BS re­p­orters prepare to leave AIIMS, Nischal offers his advice: “Don’t lower your guard and keep an eye on the hospitalisation rate.” He adds that frontline workers have not just provided medical services at the cost of their own lives, but they have also had to fight through the pandemic of misinformation.

(Reporting by Udisha Srivastav, Nuha Bubere, Ashli Varghese, Sanika Sarode, Ananyanarayan Dhanabalan and Ajinkya Kawale — the first batch of Business Standard-Rahul Khullar Intern­ship Programme)