Covid threat. Avoid closures and lockdowns, says Maharashtra farmers’ political wing 

Swatantra Bharat Party (SBP), the political wing of Shetkari Sanghatana, has expressed concerns over reports that the Centre is considering border closures and lockdowns to tackle the threat posed by re-emergence of Covid threat.

Anil Ghanwat, President of SBP, called for an immediate review of the Government’s response to Covid-19 and urged that no mandatory provisions, such as lockdowns, be implemented again in the future.

In its statement, it said on December 20, the Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department issued guidelines that refer to an “alleged” sudden spurt of cases being witnessed in some countries – to prepare the government to take requisite public health measures.

Swedish example

Analysis by SBP’s advisor Sanjeev Sabhlok, an economist and former IAS officer, suggests that the harms from India’s lockdowns exceeded any benefits a thousand times. “More damaging is his analysis using the OxCGRT database (from Oxford University) of Covid fatalities across the world. The analysis shows that there has been a significant increase in Covid deaths in countries which imposed severe lockdowns. As expected, Sweden has been one of the countries with the least Covid (and non-Covid) deaths: being the only country that abjured lockdowns as required by the standard public health literature prior to 2020,” the statement by SBP added.

Ghanwat said, “Our party has firmly opposed lockdowns from day one, which have caused unimaginable harm to the poor and children of India. A risk-based approach that minimizes harm to health from all causes, is needed. Current approaches cause extensive harms to a vast number of people while purportedly protecting a few.”

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