18th April 2020, New Delhi: The Central Government via Ministry of Home Affairs has announced new lockdown relaxations from April 20. This would mean that more sectors & workers would be allowed to operate and more industries & offices will come back online. As per section 14 of the revised consolidated guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs earlier this week, many commercial and private establishments have been allowed to resume operations from April 20th. These establishments may be allowed to operate under the strict adherence of social distancing and include print and electronic media, DTH services, IT & IT enabled services, Government data and call centres, and E-commerce companies and their entire supply chain (after receiving necessary permissions). Other sectors include courier services, cold storage & warehousing services, private security & facility management services, some hotels and self-employed persons like plumbers, electricians, IT repair, carpenter etc.

Citizens have been reacting in different ways to the MHA guidelines. LocalCircles conducted a survey to get a citizen pulse check on how the State Governments should adopt and enforce these guidelines in their cities and received around 16,000 responses from various parts of the country.

The first question asked how should the state Governments implement them in districts with 1 or more cases post March 31st. 41% said they support movement of all goods and restricted movement of people as per the guidelines, while 29% said they support movement of all goods and a lockdown on people movement in all sectors except essential services. 27% said they are in favor of movement of only essential goods and a lockdown on people movement in all sectors except essential services.

For districts with 1 or more cases after March 31, 70% citizens support movement of all goods; Only 41% citizens support movement of people

This means that for districts with 1 or more cases after March 31, 70% citizens support movement of all goods but only 41% citizens support movement of people.

The next question asked how the State Governments should implement the guidelines in districts with no cases at all or no cases after March 31. As per the response, only 14% support movement of all goods and unrestricted movement of people, while 56% said movement of all goods should be allowed and movement of people should be restricted as per the MHA guidelines. 12% said states should allow movement of all goods but lockdown the movement of people in all sectors except essential services. 18% said only movement of essential services should be allowed and people movement in all sectors except essential services should be locked down.

For districts with no cases after March 31, 82% citizens support movement of all goods; Also, 70% citizens support movement of people

This means for districts with no cases or no cases after March 31, 82% citizens support the movement of all goods and 70% citizens support movement of people.

An earlier poll conducted by LocalCircles in the 3rd week of the lockdown showed that 79% citizens were in favour of stringent restrictions from 15th April to contain the spread of Coronavirus.

Coronavirus cases are hitting new peaks in India with total now over approximately 14,000. This number a week ago on April 10 stood at 7,000 with an average of 1000 cases being reported each day.

The results of the survey show that although citizens are appreciating the Government’s efforts to ensure smooth flow of all goods via retail or ecommerce delivery channels, they feel the movement of people needs to be restricted not just in hotspots but in districts with active cases. Citizens want the State Governments to enable a plan to ensure unrestricted delivery of goods and services to people, but the movement of citizens in districts where one or more positive cases has been found after March 31, 2020 must be restricted. Once 21 days pass in any district without a COVID-19 case, the State Government may permit commercial and private establishments to function per the MHA guidelines.