CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF COVID19 PANDEMIC WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIA

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Abstract: Corona Virus Disease (COVID19) shattered and disturbed the horizontal and vertical layers of Indian society. India, a developing nation, prioritized the life of citizens and successfully managed to minimize the losses of lives at the cost of huge socio-economic losses. The collective decision of ‘complete lockdown’ by the government (both Central and the State governments) saved India from entering into havoc as faced by developed nation’s viz. Italy and the USA. Though, socio-economic issues related to unorganized sectors, agricultural production, reverse migration and disguise unemployment came into the scene. The present article traces out the stage-wise spread of COVID19 across the globe. The study narrows down to the scenario of India and the spread of COVID19 in the different states of India. Further, the study describes about ‘Complete Lockdown’ as a measure of social distancing and its impact on socio-economic life of people. Moreover, the study discusses how lockdown helped in minimizing the spread of COVID19 in India. Lastly, discussion on the role of community-based organizations (CBD), non-profit organizations (NGOs) and civil societies in India’s ongoing battle against the COVID19 has been incorporated.

Key words: COVID-19, Lockdown, Social Distancing, Socio-Economic Impact. Migration

Introduction
The spread of the virus from the laboratories of Wuhan city, China created havoc in the city and later on, engulfed the entire globe. This virus became popular as ‘Coronavirus’ though it was officially named as ‘Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2)’ by the ‘International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTN) world’ and gave rise to ‘Coronavirus disease 2019’ (COVID-19) named collectively by the World Organization for Animal Health and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. WHO declared COVID19 as pandemic and issued precautionary measures in order to minimize the human-to-human transmission of COVID19. Though, the reverse migration of human beings from China to their respective home countries and conditions were worsened by the mobility within their home country. Ignorance and delayed actions worsened the situation of a country like Italy and the United States of America.
World Health Organization (WHO) divided the world into six regions viz. western pacific region, south-east Asia region, a region of the Americas, European region, Eastern Mediterranean region, and others. WHO kept a regular check on the spread of ‘Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)’ and released situation reports at a regular interval of time. In these, situation reports WHO mentioned ‘to and fro’ visit China as the major cause of the spread of 2019-nCoV, and apart from this, people outside China got infected due to one or the other reason (parcels from China etc.). As per the situation report-22, China was the worst sufferer with 42,708 confirmed cases and responsible for the spread of Coronavirus. The situation report-22 shows that 159 people (across the globe) got infected during their visit to China and on their way back home infected many others. Likewise, 90 people were reported to be infected outside China (across the globe) due to one or the other reason. As per the situation report-22 of the World Health Organization (WHO), China got hit by the virus in the worst possible manner with 42,708 confirmed cases out of which 7333 were severe and 1017 people died (as on 11 February 2020). This report reflected a worrisome picture regarding the spread of Coronavirus and things turned into reality. A boom was experienced in the spread of Coronavirus across the globe and cases were reported from every country. Countries like Italy, Spain, and the United States of America got hit by the spread of Coronavirus in the worst possible manner.

By:

1Sandesh Yadav* and 2Shams Perwaiz 1Freelance Researcher, New Delhi, India 2Teacher, Sr. High School, Jokihat, Araria, Bihar, India *Corresponding author’s email: sandesh_official@yahoo.in