 "Illustration by Binay Sinha")
In fighting the onslaught of the coronavirus in this large country policy measures have to be different in different areas, depending on the patterns of infection spread and livelihoods disrupted. Yet much of the policy so far has been overcentralised, with the initial lockdown decision taken by the central leadership without consulting state-level leaders and with an unnecessary suddenness that left little time for preparation and caused enormous hardships for millions of poor workers.
Moreover, the lockdown has been enforced not through building community-level trust, but with characteristically harsh police crackdowns, callousness for the stranded migrant workers, and rigidity of top-down
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