Uday Shankar "Indian response" - Second GPN Global Webinar "COVID-19. SUPERNATIONAL, NATIONAL AND REGIONAL RESPONSES. BUILDING RESILIENCE THROUGH COMPARISON OF EXPERIENCES"

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Global Webinar
Covid-19 and Government response.
Building resilience on comparison of experiences
INDIAN RESPONSE
UDAY SHANKAR
Associate Professor, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law,
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
uday@iitkgp.ac.in
5 MARCH 2021

Government Responses:
Health
Employment (Working Class)
Local Measures (Lockdown)
Constitutional Responses:
Decision on the subject matter enlisted in List II
Top-Down Model
Centre taking the lead/deciding the measures.
74th Constitutional Amendment – should have been put in use for
better management.
State should have been given more space to strategies.

Federal Structure and Pandemic:
Indian Constitution is quasi-federal
Federal structure with centralised tendency.
Three Lists – Centre, State and Concurrent – demarcation of
domains for the centre and the state governments.
In fact, the State List (List II) contains the subjects of public
order and public health, and the Concurrent List (List III)
includes the aspect of prevention of inter-state
transmission of infectious diseases.
Article 248 confers residuary power on the Centre.

The Guidelines issued apparently touched upon the subjects
reserved for the states.
such as hospitals (Entry 6 on the State List), markets
(Entry 52 on the State List) and state government
offices (covered by “State Public Offices” entry 41 on
the State List).
Article 243W read with the Twelfth Schedule
Entry 6 enables the states delegate its responsibilities
over public health to Municipalities.
GoI constituted 11 empowered groups and a coordination
group for pandemic response.

States formed multidisciplinary taskforces and advisory
panels
Semi-federal, democratic and decentralised governance;
consultative decision-making processes (e.g, taskforces)
Factors on the submissiveness of the states - Over-
dependence of the states over centres on finances has
weaken the position of the former.
Option given in the Constitution - CG are allowed to legislate
on the state lists if the resolution is passed, in national
interest, by the Council of States.
Emergency provision was not invoked.

Legal Responses During Pandemic:
Lockdown was imposed under Disaster Management Act,
2005 – A central Act.
Sec(s). 6 and 10 of the Act
which allows the central government and the National Disaster
Management Authority to override any other law in force and
issue directions to any authority in India, and requires that all such
directions must be followed.
Centre to “take such other measures for the prevention of disaster, or
the mitigation, or preparedness and capacity building for dealing
with the threatening disaster situation or disaster as it may
consider necessary”.
Pandemic was declared as national disaster.
Power with CG to issue guidelines during disaster (pandemic).
Release of prisoners to decongest jails and Waiving off of
examination.

Legal Responses during Pandemic.
the state governments under the Epidemic Act, 1897.
Section 2 of the Epidemic Act empowers the state governments to
take any special measures and issue temporary regulations which
it deems fit ‘to prevent the outbreak of such disease or the spread
thereof, and may determine in what manner and by whom any
expenses incurred (including compensation if any) shall be
defrayed’.
Gained increased administrative power – started locking down
before the declaration of a nationwide lockdown.
Sec. 144 CrPC was invoked to prohibit the assembly of more
than 4 people

Executive Responses During Pandemic:
Health Services:
Free-of-cost testing and treatment for COVID-19 under the national universal
health insurance scheme (‘PM JAY’);
patients with chronic diseases given medicine refill stock for 3 months in
advance;
home delivery of 1 month’s anti-tuberculosis medicines
amendment of telemedicine practice guidelines by Govt. of India (24 March);
attacks on Health Care Workers engaged in COVID-19 response made promptly
punishable under law.
price of masks (two-ply/three-ply surgical masks, N95) and hand sanitisers
capped by Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
release of advance/increased salaries for HCWs engaged in COVID-19 response.
Essential Services:
Increased share and subsidies on rations distributed through the public
distribution system
Internet data purchase allowance for students to continue online classes.

Executive Responses During Pandemic:
Working Class:
the Ministry of Labour and Employment issued an
advisory on 20th March 2020 - appealing to all
employer's association not to terminate their employees
or cut wages of its workers in view of the lockdown.
The advisory also stated that all employers of
public/private establishments are advised to extend their
cooperation by not terminating their employees,
particularly casual or contractual workers or reduce their
wages.
SC allowed the employers to negotiate with the
employees on the payment of wages.
Economic packages were announced by the government.

Critical Approach:
Lockdown gave overarching power to the government officials –
issues were raised on the issue of the realisation of the rights.
Shutting of economic activities/business – exposed the
vulnerability of working class.
Widespread income losses suppress demand, and that, in turn,
generates its own pandemic of income losses for others.
Public health in India falls under the jurisdiction of individual
states rather than under the central government, yet the states
have been starved of resources instead.
Should it be made a responsibility of the centre or shared –
so that the uniformity in health care services are to be
maintained.
No legislation to deal with public health emergencies.

Sum-Up
Centralised Approach – initially.
Government didn’t only rely on the legislative measures but
also invoked public campaigning to spread the
awareness.
Municipal Institutions were to be better utilised.
Municipalities are also empowered by some of the state laws to take
similar measures (for example, Section 479 of the Kolkata
Municipal Corporation Act, 1980).
Coordination among the states was needed, not only
consistency.
Horizontal federalism needs to be strengthen.
(https://www.barandbench.com/columns/strengthening-the-horizontal-federalism-in-india-need-
of-the-hour)

Success Story in India -
Fatality rate is consistently below the world rate.
Swift action on the part of the Government – a complete national
lockdown – daunting task for a populous country like India.
Citizen’s participation in containing the crisis – social distancing and
preventive measures e.g., wearing of masks in public places.
Awareness campaign was unprecedented – such as replaced ring tunes
on phones.
Production of personal protective equipment – second largest in the
world.
Thrust on digital technology to model and to predict the spread of
disease, and contact tracing – Aarogya setu app
Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers
Vaccination programme – strategic and targeted.
Free of cost to health workers and at government hospitals -
Availability of the vaccine on affordable price at private hospitals.

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Covid-19 and Government response.
Building resilience on comparison of experiences

Uday Shankar "Indian response" - Second GPN Global Webinar "COVID-19. SUPERNATIONAL, NATIONAL AND REGIONAL RESPONSES. BUILDING RESILIENCE THROUGH COMPARISON OF EXPERIENCES"

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Uday Shankar "Indian response" - Second GPN Global Webinar "COVID-19. SUPERNATIONAL, NATIONAL AND REGIONAL RESPONSES. BUILDING RESILIENCE THROUGH COMPARISON OF EXPERIENCES"