Pil 19

TEAM CODE- PIL-19
BEFORE THE HON’BLE SUPREME COURT OF GOTHAM
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
WRIT PETTTTON [CIVIL NO. ___ OF 2020]
1st ILNU
INTRA-INSTITUTE PIL COMPETETION, 2020
IN THE MATTER OF
SASH NGO
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------P ETITIONER
v.
REPUBLIC OF GOTHAM-------------------------------------------------------------------
RESPONDENT
PIL AGAINST THE GOVT. FOR THE UNFULFILLMENT OF ITS DUTIES

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
(CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION) WRIT PETTTTON
(CIVIL) NO. ____ OF 2020
(PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION)
IN THE MATTER OF:
l. SANITIZE AND STAY HYGIENIC (SASH) NGO … PETITIONER
A-69 WAYNE MANOR,
NEAR ARKHUM ASYLUM,
MOUNTAIN DRIVE-990099
VERSUS
1. REPUBLIC OF GOTHAM,
THROUGH ITS SECRETARY
MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
NORTH BLOCK, CENTRAL SECRETARIAT
NEW DELHI-11OOO1 … RESPONDENT No. 1
2. REPUBLIC OF GOTHAM,
THROUGH ITS SECRETARY
MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
UDYOG BHAWAN
NEW DELHI-11OOO1 … RESPONDENT No. 2

WRIT PETITION IN PUBLIC INTEREST UNDER ARTICLE 32 OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF INDIA FOR DIRECTIONS TO THE CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT TO CARRY OUT MASS AND RANDOM TESTING, TO ENSURE
THAT THE HELATH AND SANITATITON WORKERS WORKING
RELENTLESSLY IN THE PRESENT SITUATIION ARE PROVIDED WITH
PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENTS (PPE) INCLUDING LONG-SLEEVED
GOWN, GLOVES, BOOTS, MASKS, AND GOGGLES/FACE SHIELD, TO ENSURE
THAT THE MIGRANT LABOURERS WHO ARE RENDERED JOBLESS AND
WITHOUT FOOD, CLOTHING AND SHELTER ARE PAID WAGES AND ARE
PROVIDED WITH ESSENTIAL COMMODITIES DURING THE PERIOD OF
LOCKDOWN, TO ENSURE THAT THE POLICE PERSONNEL DO NOT EXERCISE
EXCESSIVE FORCE AND DO NOT VIOLATE ANY HUMAN RIGHTS DURING
THE PERIOD OF LOCKDOWN, TO ENSURE THAT NO FAKE NEWS IS SPREAD
ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO AVOID CHAOS AND ACT AS A MYTH BUSTER
FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO LIFE WITH
DIGNITY OF ALL THE CITIZENS OF THE WHICH HAS BEEN PUT AT STAKE
DUE TO INACTIONS ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT DURING THE
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
TO,
THE HON’BLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA
AND HIS LORDSHIP’S COMPANION JUDGES OF
THE HON’BLE SUPREME COURT OF GOTHAM
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE
PETITIONER ABOVE-NAMED,
MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:
1. That, the present petition has been filed before the Hon’ble Supreme Court by the
petitioners-in-person as a matter of public interest, under Article 32 of the Constitution
of India:
2. For a direction to the Central Government of the country to carry out mass tests and start
segregating the sufferers of COVID-19 virus immediately. The three layer process i.e.
identification, isolation and treating should be activated quickly to eradicate the disease.
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This will eventually break the chain of transmission in the country, preventing the
transmission of virus from entering into the third stage. The consequences of the
COVID-19 will get worse if not combated on time. It is necessary to prevent the country
to fight with the fire of this virus blindfolded.
3. Along with, directing the Central Government to provide Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE) to the Health and Sanitize workers. These class of people are working day and
night irrespective of worrying about their lives, out of the duty to safeguard the lives of
people serving the nation selflessly. The number of these workers are already too less as
compared to the population of the country. It is time that the government should start
focusing more on this class of people.
4. Furthermore, directing the Central Government to remove the hindrance for living a
normal life by providing essential facilities. Facilities like food and shelter are in daily
requirements to migrant and daily wageworkers. Including, they should be provided with
a minimum amount of money to aid themselves as well as their family’s health. In
furtherance of the lockdown, initiated by the government under Disaster Management
Act 2005, it is necessary to honour the step and create a full stop on people, who are
moving from one place to another in search of food, shelter and money. As it makes the
mockery of the concept of social distancing meant to be achieved through the lockdown.
5. Moreover, directing the Central Government to look into the powers conferred into the
police authorities so as to prevent the misuse of power. These improper actions are
leading to the violation of human rights. Excessive force used during ‘lathi charge’ on
the people which supposed to be stop. This may create chaos and initiation of protest
among people against the Government, making the situation worsen.
6. In addition to, directing the Central Government to clear the myths floating in and
around the social media platform as well as the words by the governments’ own
officials. Government should stand as myth breaker when there are high crisis in the
whole country. Misleading of information would lead to increase the disorder and
burden the State’s authority without any just cause.
ARRAY OF THE PARTIES:
7. That, the Petitioner is a Non Government Organisation (NGO), named as Sanitize and
Safe Hygienic (SASH), registered under Socities Registration Act, 1860. The NGO is
located at A-69 Wayne Manor, Near Arkhum Asylum, Mountain Drive-990099. The
email address of the NGO is contact@sashngo.in and its mobile number is 9786475453.
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The NGO is working to defend and fight for rights and entitlements of many groups of
workers as well as citizens of the country. The NGO also carries out awareness
programs regarding the importance of cleanliness and hygiene amongst the weaker
section of the society.
8. That, the Respondent No. 1 is the Union of India, through the office of Secretary,
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, being the concerned authority charged with
health policy and all government programs related to health and family welfare in India.
9. That, the Respondent No. 2 is the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the office of its
Secretary, being the concerned authority responsible for domestic policy in India.
10. The petitioner has no personal interest, or private/oblique motive in filing the instant
petition. There is no civil, criminal, revenue or any litigation involving the petitioner,
which has or could have a legal nexus with the issues involved in the PIL.
11. The petitioner has not made any representations to the respondent in this regard because
of the extreme urgency of the matter in issue. That the instant writ petition is based on
the information/documents that are in public domain.
Brief facts leading to filing of this Petition before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Gotham
are as follows:-
12. In December 2019 a novel virus known as COVID-19 was identified in Springfield, in
Divided States. The virus COVID-19 has symptoms like fever, cold, cough, shortness
of breath, which are similar to the symptoms of a normal flu. Therefore, it is very
difficult to differentiate the person suffering form COVID-19 and a normal Flu in the
initial stage.
13. The virus is contagious by touch and is primarily spread between people coming into
close contact through respiratory droplets produced during coughing, sneezing, talking
and sometimes even while regular breathing. People can also get infected by touching a
contaminated surfaces as the virus can survive on various surfaces for up to seventy-
two hours.
14. Even though the virus COVID-19 does not have a high mortality rate as compared to
previous contagious viruses such as Ebola, Plague etc. but the virus leads to pneumonia
and acute respiratory distress. These leads to very high risk of mortality in the people
having lung problems, blood pressure, diabetes. The virus is deadly for infants as well
as old-aged people.
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15. Since being identified and transmitted amongst the local population of Springfield, in
Divided States in December 2019, the virus has spread all over the world causing
massive infections and deaths. The virus has also caused massive disruption in public
life and services. Moreover, it has affected more than 199 countries over the world.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the virus COVID-19 as Global
Pandemic on 13th March 2020.
16. The virus COVID-19 is one of a kind as confirmed by experts. As per various news
reports, scientists from all over the world, it would take almost 2 years to create a
vaccine for the virus COVID-19. In addition, the virus COVID-19 does not have a
prescribed antiviral treatment as a result of which the only way to protect someone
from the virus is to maintain social distancing and take precautionary measures. The
same can be done by restricting human movement, promoting cleanliness, sanitizing
and many more.
17. Republic of Gotham registered its first case of COVID-19 on 30 th January and within a
week two more COVID-19 infected cases were registered in the Republic of Gotham.
After the first three cases, there was no rise in the COVID-19 infected cases for over a
month. In the first week of March 2020, new cases of COVID-19 were registered in the
Republic of Gotham. To take an account, most of the infected patients were either
Italians or persons who had come in contact with an Italian Tourist family. After a
certain time, there was a slow rise in the number of cases. These cases were mainly of
those infected patients or the citizens of the nation who had been evacuated from
various countries or had come to Republic of Gotham from a COVID-19 infected
country. At this point of time, the Republic of Gotham was in the First stage of
transmission where a country’s COVID-19 infected patients have got infected with the
virus by travelling to or coming from a COVID-19 affected country.
18. According to WHO the country entered into the second stage of COVID-19
transmission on 12th March 2020. Second stage begins with ‘Local Transmission’ of
the infection in citizens of the country, in which people who have no foreign travel
history, simply by coming into contact with an individual infected by the virus start
getting the virus. After the country entered into the second stage of transmission, there
was a sudden rise in the number of corona virus infected cases all over the country.
(The True Copy of the Situation Report-52 of the WHO Dated 12 th March 2020 is
annexed as ANNEXURE 1 at page 19 to 27 )
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19. Thereafter confirmed COVID-19 infected cases steeply increased and crossed 100 by
15th March, 500 by 24th March, 1500 by 31st March, , 2,653 by 3rd April, 3113 by 4th
April, 3554 by 5th April. On 8th April 2020, the total number of confirmed corona
infected cases crossed over 5000 individuals. The death toll of coronavirus infected
persons exceeded 60 on 2nd April and by 8th April 2020, the total death total crossed
over 150 individuals.
20. The inactions on the part of the government has led the Republic of Gotham to a stage
that it is soon expected to reach the stage three of the virus transmission. The third
stage is where Community Transmission begins in which the source of infection of a
COVID-19 infected patient cannot be traced.
21. The Republic of Gotham failed to identify the threat of COVID-19 and failed to learn
from the mistakes committed by different countries such as Italy, Spain, United States
of America etc., which were already suffering highly from this disease. These countries
failed to anticipate the threat posed by the virus, which can lead to bad consequences.
The Republic of Gotham had only three cases for the entire month of February and it
could have easily stopped the COVID-19 from entering the nation but it failed to do so.
The main reason for its spread is faulty policy regarding the screening of international
passengers and testing of COVID-19 patients.
22. The Republic of Gotham started screening of International passengers from the month
of January itself but the entire procedure, which includes screening and to quarantine,
followed was very faulty in itself. Until March 4, only the international passengers
from 12 countries were screened, ignoring the fact that by time the COVID-19 virus
had spread across more than 70 countries. A majority of passengers coming from
Europe and Middle East were not screened. Apart from screening of passengers, the
quarantine policy adopted by the nation was very liberal. It was restricted only to those
people who possessed a very high risk of infection. Moreover, majority of the people
were asked to self-isolate instead of a compulsory isolation in the same regards.
(A copy of the News Report Published by The Print Dated 1 st April 2020 is annexed as
ANNEXURE 2 at page 28 to 29)
23. The faulty and liberal screening and quarantine policy of the Government the citizens
of the country were the reasons for exposure to the COVID-19 virus. This risked the
lives of 1.38 billion people all together by paving a way for the local transmission.
Another major failure on the part of the government in identifying and countering the
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COVID-19 virus was lack of testing in the country due to a very stringent testing
policy.
(A true copy of the current Strategy of COVID-19 testing in India dated 20/03/2020 of
the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Health Research,
downloaded from the Government website, is annexed herewith as ANNEXURE 3
at page 31)
24. The only way to counter the threat, possessed by COVID-19, is to test as many as
people and separate the COVID-19 infected persons from the general public so that the
chain of transmission could be broken apart. The Republic of Gotham failed in this
task miserably as it has the lowest testing rate all over the world. As per the Associated
Press, A mere 90 samples a day were tested by the laboratories in the Republic of
Gotham inspite of their capacity of carrying 8000 test per day.
(A copy of the News Report Published by The Diplomat Dated 23 rd March, 2020 is
annexed as ANNEXURE 4 from page 32 to 34)
25. Moreover, the number of laboratories carrying out COVID-19 are very less from initial
time. As of now, as per Gotham Council of Medical Research, near about 80
government run laboratories are in operation along with a very few private laboratories
for carrying out COVID-19 tests. Inspite of all the consequences, all these laboratories
are not carrying out test to their full capacity due to the governments vague stand that,
“Unnecessary testing will cause panic in the country”. This stand of the government,
for not carrying out mass and random test all over the country, is against the ideology
of “Test, Test, Test” given by the WHO.
26. Republic of Gotham has one of the lowest testing rates in the world and due to which
many experts fear that the reported number of COVID-19 infected cases can be very
less than the actual number of COVID-19 infected cases. According to a recent report,
published by the Delhi School of Economics along with three American Universities
and eminent scientists of the world, the Republic of Gotham could have more than 1.5
Million COVID-19 infected patients by May, 2020 due to lack of testing. Also, the
sudden 80% rise in the number of infected cases after a slight increase in testing is
clearly indicative of the fact that these cases may only be the tip of the iceberg and
we’re oblivious to the real gravity of the situation.
27. As of 7th April 2020, only 1,14,015 samples have been tested which is roughly 82 tests
per 1 million people in a country with more than 1.38 billion citizens. The ratio of 82
tests per million is very less as compared to all other nations over the world. For
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example, by March 17, South Korea had carried out more than 5,500 tests per million
people, and Italy more than 2,500 per million.
(A true copy of the COVID-19 Status Report dated 7 th April 2020, of the Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR), downloaded from the Government website,
is annexed as ANNEXURE 5 at page 35 )
(A copy of the News Report Published by The Diplomat Dated 23 rd March, 2020 is
28. Thus, due to lackadaisical behaviour in testing the COVID-19, the infected patients are
not identified. The only way to counter this problem i.e. testing and separating, is not
done by the government which led to continuation of the the chain of transmission
without any of the hindrances. Once a densely populated country, like Gotham, reaches
the stage three of transmission, it would be very difficult to control the virus the
situation will go out of hands soon after entrance into this stage. There is an urgent
need of the hour that government should instruct to carry out an aggressive form of
testing, as to separate the COVID-19 infected patients from the general public.
29. Furthermore, since the inception of the COVID-19, the two class of work groups are
relentlessly working and fulfilling their duties towards the nation all over the world.
They are the Health and Sanitation workers who are serving their nation selflessly.
Both of the work groups are essential for eradicating COVID-19 from the country and
their work involves a lot of risk of infection as both of them come in contact with the
COVID-19 infected people.
30. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), both, the Health and Sanitation
Workers, are considered as vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 due to nature of the
work done by them. Responding to the same, the WHO issued a Technical Brief and an
Interim guidance highlighting that both health and sanitation workers need to wear
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as per their nature of their service. The PPE must
include Hand Gloves, Protective Gear, Boots and Face Shield.
(True Copy of the Technical Brief and Interim Guidelines Given by WHO Dated 3 rd
March 2020 and 19th March are annexed as ANNEXURE 7 from page 39 to 53)
31. The risk taken by these people on themselves for fulfilling their duty tirelessly, looking
into the present scenario is commendable yet concerning. As the reports says, there is
only one doctor for almost 1400 patients, making the ratio 01:1400, in the country. It is
to be brought into notice, by the means of this petition, that the lives of these workers
have significant importance as to treat the patients.
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32. Taking an account of the present scenario, this petition has been filed before the
Hon’ble Supreme Court of Gotham to look after the Health and Sanitation Workers
who are serving the entire nation tirelessly and selflessly during the present situation.
33. It is the duty of the government to provide PPE’s required by the health and sanitation
workers. Certainly, the government has failed to do so it does not have adequate
facilities for these workers. The shortage in the required equipment are because of
government faulty behaviour. When there was no registeration a single new case in the
whole month, the government relaxed its export norms on February 8, by allowing
export of gloves and surgical masks. The government on February 25 gave further
relaxations by allowing export of 10 Protective Equipment. The export of all these
items was banned by the government on March 19 when the number of COVID-19
cases rose to 150.
34. The government was gone into aberrant direction for allowing the exports of the
Personal Protective Equipment. It was reasonably foreseeable through the condition of
countries like Divided States and Italy that the requirement of such equipment will be
increasing day by day.
35. A country like Republic of Gotham, which has been a disease prone country since its
inception due to lack of proper sanitation and awareness, should not have taken a risk
by exporting its Personal Protective Equipment when its own people were in need of
the same. The country risked the lives of the so many workers and thereby the entire
nation by exporting all the required items to different nations.
36. Doctors in different parts of the country had to resort to wear Raincoats and Helmets in
order to protect themselves from infection. A junior doctor serving COVID-19 Patients
in a hospital in Kolkata, described how “for over a week, we came in close contact
with suspected corona patients without proper protective gear … We all are left at the
mercy of God.” Also by 2nd April 2020 over 50 Doctors and medical staff have tested
positive for COVID-19.
(A copy of the News Report Published by The Guardian Dated 1 st April 2020 is
(A copy of the News Report Published by Indian Today Dated 3 rd April 2020 is
37. Due to lack of Protective Equipment’s various sanitation workers have tested positive
of COVID-19. Out of them, a 54 year-old sanitation worker staying at Dharavi locality
of Mumbai tested positive of COVID-19. Dharavi is a home to more than seven lakh
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people in an area of 2.1 sq. km. Form this one can reasonably anticipate that how dense
is the population of the country and by risking the life of health and sanitation workers
the government has risked and is further risking the life of every single person in the
country.
(A copy of the News Report Published by Indian Today Dated 2 nd April 2020 is
annexed as ANNEXURE 10 at page 58)
38. In the concerns of the present situation, this petition has been sought from the Hon’ble
Supreme Court to direct the government to ensure the Safety of Health and Sanitation
workers by providing them with the required Personal Protective Equipment’s (PPE).
39. Further, in order to stop the chain of transmission on 24 th March, 2020 vide order no.
4O-312O20-DM- 1(A) the government of Gotham via the Ministry of Home affairs
issued an order directing a nation-wide 21 day lockdown under Section 6 and Section
10 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
(Copy of the order is annexed as ANNEXURE 11 at page to 59)
(Copy of the consolidated guidelines on the measure to be taken by Ministries/
Departments of Government of Gotham, State/Union Territory Governments and
State/Union Territory Authorities for containment of COVID-19 Epidemic in the
Country, as notified by Ministry of Home Affairs on 24.O3.2O2O and further
modified on 25.03.2020 and 27.03.2020 is annexed as ANNEXURE 12 from page
60 to 67)
40. The petitioners humbly submit that the petitioner is not against the idea of lockdown
itself but it is against the sudden manner in which lockdown was implemented in the
nation without considering the aftermath of such step. The lockdown imposed by the
government has caused an unprecedented economic hardship on daily wage earners.
41. The aftereffects of the National Lockdown has been very chaotic and confusing. It has
caused a lot of hardship to the economically weaker section of the society and
especially to the migrant workers. As per the census carried out in the country in the
year 2011, the Republic of Gotham had 41 million migrant workers. Due to the
lockdown, these migrant and daily wageworkers lost their only means of livelihood as
all activities except the essential activities were stopped in the entire nation. Because of
which all these daily wageworkers were rendered jobless. They had hardly any money
left in their hands and were without food and shelter.
(A copy of the news report from The Caravan dated 26s March 2020 is annexed as
ANNEXURE 13 at page 68 to 75)
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(A copy of the news report from the Business Insider dated 26th March 2020 is
annexed as ANNEXURE 14 at Page 76 to 79)
42. At the initial stage of the lockdown, the government did not make any arrangement for
the migrant and daily wage workers regarding their wages, food, and shelter due to
which lakhs of migrant workers started walking back to their native place. The purpose
of walking was, they would get at least a place to live and their villages made no
provisions. In addition, the financial package announced by the government did not
have any relief for the migrated workers. Moreover, the free food grains announced by
the central government were available to the migrated workers at their registered voter
address. Thereon, the migrant workers had to resort to walk back to their native.
Subsequently, this instance created a mockery of the idea of social distancing sought to
be imposed by the lockdown.
43. In response to the mass reverse migration and gathering of masses near bus terminal,
railway station, border etc., the government on 29 th March issued an order to restrict
the movement of migrants by stating that such migration is complete violation of
lockdown. It ordered the authorities to stop the migrants where they were and ordered
all the necessary authorities to ensure adequate arrangements are made for the
migrants. It also ordered the employers of the daily wageworkers to pay them wages on
due date without any deduction during the period of lockdown.
(A copy of the government order dated 29th March 2020 is annexed as ANNEXURE 15
at page 80)
44. The government order does not take into consideration the ground realities of the
migrant workers by not considering so many consequences, which makes the order
unenforceable. Firstly, Many of the Small scale industries will not be in a position to
pay workers their salaries since their businesses have closed down as a consequence of
the lockdown; Secondly, it does not make any provision for the means of livelihood for
a large percentage of migrant workers that are self-employed as street vendor, rickshaw
pu1lers, petty service providers, etc. who lost their work due to lockdown; Thirdly, the
government does not have an accurate record of workers employed in the informal
sector, and therefore, will not have the necessary information to enforce the order as
also stated by officials to the media.
45. The order also directs State/Union Territory Governments to ensure adequate
arrangements of temporary shelters, and provision of food etc. for the poor and needy
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people, including migrant labourers standard due to lock the measures in their
respective areas.
46. Certainly, the government has also failed in its duty to ensure that the Right to Food
conferred upon the people under Article 21 of the constitution in the case of People’s
Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India & Others Writ Petition, (civil) No. 196 of
2001. As most of the Migrants and 1.7 million homeless people of the country (As per
the census of 2011) are mostly fed by various NGO’s and religious institutions.
(A copy of the news report published by The New York Times Dated 29 th March 2020
is annexed as ANNEXURE 16 from page 81 to 84)
47. In the case of Swaraj Abhiyan v. Union of India & Ors. , 7. SCC 498 (2016)., it was
emphasized by the Hon’ble Supreme Court that the objective of the disaster
management act, 2005 is that in case of any disaster the governments and the
authorities have to provide reliefs to people affected by national disasters.
48. As a result, the present petition it has been sought from the Hon’ble Supreme Court to
direct the government to ensure that all migrant workers are paid wages by the
Government exercising its power under section 6 and section 18 of the disaster
management act, 2005 and ensure that all essential requirements of the poor and needy
people are fulfilled during the period of lockdown.
49. Furthermore, in the present times, the police forces are exercising physical force
against the violators of the lockdown as section 144 of Indian Penal Code has been
imposed in almost all over the country through the order of the National Executive
Committee under the disaster management act, 2005.
50. In some instances, it has been found out that the police authorities are misusing this
power and duty conferred to them and are exercising excessive force by acting
arbitrary for strict implementation of the lockdown. Lockdown cannot be used as
means for violation of human rights.
(A copy of the news report published by The Wire Dated 27 th March 2020 is annexed
as ANNEXURE 17 from page 85 to 90)
51. Moreover, in this Internet age, social media platforms have become a tool for
spreading fake messages related to any issue. In the present scenario, it is very essential
for the government to ensure that no such fake messages are spread across the country.
If such messages are spread, it is the duty of the state to clarify all these myths and
prevent spreading of fake messages as per section 54 of the disaster management act,
2005. For instance, in a public speech, a representative of the government said that
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diseases like coronavirus could be eliminated by practicing yoga. Another state
representative conferred that cow urine could treat the virus.
(A copy of the news report published by The Diplomat Dated 23 March 2020 is
annexed as ANNEXURE 18 at page 91 to 94)
52. As a result of which, in the present petition, it has been sought from the Hon’ble
Supreme Court to direct the government to ensure that the Police Administration adopt
a balanced or human approach while handling the people during the lockdown and
ensure that no fake messages or myths are spread in the country and act as myth buster.
53. In Swaraj Abhiyan v. Union of India & Ors., 7. SCC 498 (2016)., the Hon’ble
Supreme Court directed the government to formulate a National Plan under Section 1l
of the Disaster Management Act 2005, which despite the passage of 10 years had not
been put in place by the government. The plan was finally released in June 2016 and
subsequently updated in November 2019. A national advisory committee was
constituted on 29th November 2016 whose term expired on 29th November 2019. Later,
there is no such information that any advisory committee had any meetings after the
outbreak of COVID-19, which was apparent in January 2020. In any case, if such a
committee had met prior to the announcement of the lockdown order or the order on
restriction in movement of migrants, the decisions of such committee has not be put in
the public domain.
(A copy of the notification constituting the Advisory Committee is annexed as
ANNEXURE 19 at page 95 to 96).
54. The Petitioner has not filed any other petition seeking the same relief(s) in any other
Court.
GROUNDS
A. Because, the concept of Right to life with dignity conferred upon by the Article 21 of
the Constitution was expanded by the Supreme Court in the case of Francis Coralie v.
Union Territory of Delhi, AIR 746 (1981)., where it was held by the Court that, “Right
to life is not just restricted to mere animal existence but includes right to life with
dignity & all that goes along with it for living a quality life such as the basic amenities
of food, clothing, shelter, good health, free movement & the components of this right
will depend upon the economic development of the nation.”
B. Because, in the case of MC Mehta v. Union of India, 10. SCC 217 (2005)., the
Hon’ble Supreme Court said that, “The Directive Principles of State Policy under
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Article 39[e], Article 47 & Article 48 collectively cast a duty upon the state to protect
and improve public health.”
C. Because, in the case of State of Punjab v. Mohinder Singh Chawla, AIR 1225
(1997)., Right to Health was included under the ambit of Right to life and Personal
Liberty conferred upon to every person under Article 21 of the Constitution.
D. Because, Mass and Random testing are the only means as per WHO to counter the
COVID-19 virus and inadequate number of test will put the lives of 1.38 billion
citizens at peril and would amount to violation of Right to Life and Personal Liberty
and the Right to Health guaranteed by the Article 21 of the Constitution.
E. Because, the measure of imposing a lockdown and maintaining social distancing in the
country to avoid Community Transmission Stage would become useless if the present
selective testing of COVID-19 suspects is continued.
F. Because, the present system of making the Health and Sanitation Workers of treating
the COVID-19 infected patients and clear household waste and clean areas which carry
the risk of potential infections of the Corona Virus, without or with insufficient
COVID-19 Personal Protective Gear (PPE), is callous and amounts to violation of their
fundamental right to life and personal liberty and right to health conferred upon them
by Article 21 as it puts the life of the Health and sanitation workers and the lives of
their families and neighbours at a great risk.
G. Because, the order of the National Executive Committees of imposing a lockdown
throughout the nation has rendered most of the migrant labourers, which has
subsequently resulted in loss of food, clothing and shelter for the migrant labourers and
their consequent forced migration back to their hometown, makes a mockery of the
rules and norms of social distancing.
H. Because, in the case of M Nagraj v. Union of India , 8. SCC 212 (2006)., a
constitution bench of the Hon’ble Supreme court in terms of Article 21 stated that,
The rights, liberties, and freedoms of the individual are not only meant to be
protected against the State, but they are ought to be facilitated by it... It is the duty
of the State not only to guard the human dignity but also to facilitate it by taking
positive steps in that direction. The Hon’ble Court Stressed on the point that no
exact definition of human dignity exists' and it only refers to the intrinsic value of
every human being, which is to be respected by everyone. It cannot be taken away
and it cannot be given. It simply is. Every human being has dignity by virtue of his
existence.
15
I. Because, as basic amenities of food, clothing, shelter are considered as an integral part
of right to life with dignity under article 21 and it is the duty of the state to facilitate it.
As the lockdown has rendered millions of migrated workers helpless and without
such essential commodities, the state is under the obligation to provide them with
adequate wages or with such essential commodities.
J. Because, the lockdown imposed by the government cannot be used as a mean to
violate all the human rights and excessive force used by the police personnel is
unreasonable, unacceptable and it goes against the law. As the disaster
management act, 2005 does not empower the police personnel to use force for the
implementation of lockdown.
K. Because, the fake news has caused and can cause so much chaos in these critical
times where a tiny bit of misinformation can trigger a tsunami of problems and it is
the duty of the state to ensure that no such misinformation or myths are spread
across the country.
L. Because, the Disaster Management Act puts an obligation on the Central and State
governments to prepare a detailed plan and machinery for dealing and mitigating the
effects any disaster. It also obliges them to take all the required steps to help the
victims of the disasters whether in direct or indirect accordance with the plan.
16
PRAYER
In the view of the above facts, circumstances and in the interest of justice, it is Most
Respectfully prayed that this Hon’ble Court may graciously be pleased to:-
A. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the respondents
to carry out mass and random testing for identification and treatment of COVID-19
infected persons within the territory of Gotham, starting from the states and cities
most affected by the COVID-19 virus on a priority basis so that the infected patients
and are identified and separated to contain and protect the citizens from the
exponential surge and from the scourge of COVID-19 pandemic.
B. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the Respondents
to instruct all the agencies undertaking and overviewing health and sanitation
facilities under its jurisdiction not to have any Health and Sanitation Workers
carrying out any treatment or cleaning activity without being provided with the
COVID 19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which includes long-sleeved gown,
gloves, boots, masks, and goggles/face shield.
C. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the Respondents
to instruct all the agencies undertaking and overviewing health and sanitation
facilities under its jurisdiction to ensure that all Health and Sanitation Workers are
provided with the COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment within 48 hours.
D. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the Central and
the State governments to jointly and severally ensure payments of wages to all the
migrant workers within a week or provide them with the essential commodities,
whether employed by other establishments, contractors or self-employed, as they are
unable to work and earn wages, during the period of lock down.
E. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the respondents
to ensure that the Police personnel do not violate any human rights while
implementing the lockdown and to ensure that the police personnel adopt a humane
approach and do not resort to violence while handling people during the lockdown.
F. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the respondents
to ensure that no fake news is spread across the country through any platforms in
these critical times.
G. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the central and
state governments to immediately activate National and State Advisory committees of
experts in the field of disaster management and public health and prepare national
17
and state disaster management plans for dealing with the COVID_ 19 epidemic,
taking into account all relevant aspects, mitigation measure' their possible costs and
consequences as required under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
H. Pass such other and further order(s) in addition to or in substitution for, as this
Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.
FOR THIS ACT OF KINDNESS THE PETITIONER
SHALL DUTY BOUND FOREVER PRAY
DRAWN BY: PETITITIONER

THROUGH:
(COUNSEL FOR THE PETITIONER)
18
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF REPUBLIC OF GOTHAM-
(CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION)
WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO. _ OF 2O2O
In the matter of:
SASH NGO …
Petitioners
Versus
Republic of Gotham …
Respondent
AFFIDAVIT
I, Authority on behalf of the Sanitize and Stay Hygienic (SASH) NGO, located at A-69
Wayne Manor, Near Arkhum Asylum, Mountain Drive-990099, do hereby solely affirm and
state oath as under:
1. That I am the Petitioner in the above petition and being familiar with the facts and
circumstances of the case, I am competent and authorized to swear this Affidavit.
2. That I have read and understood the contents of the Synopsis and and the Petition
(Page No. 5 to 17). I state that the facts therein are true and correct to the best of my
knowledge and nothing material has been concealed therefrom. Source of information
is official documents and news reports as available on websites and in the Public
domain.
3. I further state that all the Annexures to the Petition are true copies of their respective
originals.
4. That this petition is only motivated by public interest. I affirm that I have no personal
interest in this matter.
5. That I have done whatsoever enquiry that was possible and I state that no relevant facts
in my knowledge have been withheld.
DEPONENT
VERIFICATION:
19
I, the above-named Deponent, do hereby verify that the contents of the above Affidavit are
true and correct to my knowledge, no part of it is false and nothing material has been
concealed there from. Verified at Mountain Drive on this 16th of April 2020.
20
ANNEXURE 1
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23
24
25
26
27
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ANNEXURE - 2
In India’s fight against coronavirus, one arm

failed miserably — Parliament
MPs were warning about the severity of Covid-19. But Modi govt, whose AYUSH
Ministry kept advocating homeopathy, didn’t wake up until Kanika Kapoor incident.
DILIP MANDAL 1 April, 2020 1:56 pm IST
India’s preparedness to deal with the coronavirus pandemic can be judged by many indicators.
One of them is the seriousness with which Indian Parliament discussed it. As last as 20 March,
the AYUSH Ministry was responding to queries in Parliament and also advocating Ayurveda,
Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy as means “to prevent the outbreak of Corona Virus”.
India reported its first positive case of coronavirus on 30 January. The next day saw the
beginning of Parliament’s budget session, which lasted until 23 March — a day before Prime
Minister Narendra Modi announced the 21-day nationwide lockdown and both the Houses of
Parliament were adjourned sine die.
During the session, as many as 50 wide-ranging questions related to coronavirus were asked
by members of the two Houses — 27 in Rajya Sabha and 23 in Lok Sabha. Questions
pertained to the impact of the virus on India’s economy, jobs, and the manufacturing sector.
Some members sought to know about possible cure of the disease.
The answers and clarifications provided by the different ministries of the Modi government
can be best described as routine and casual. But the scene was no different outside Parliament.
Absurd suggestions and quackery ranging from cow dung to gaumutra (cow urine) to ’15
minutes of sunbathing’ were all suggested as possible cure of coronavirus, most of them by
members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Unhealthy stance
On 26 February, Indian government had dispatched 15 tonnes of medical supplies to China, whose Wuhan city
had reported the first case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This was confirmed by Union health minister Harsh
Vardhan in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on 6 March. This was the status of India’s preparedness
just 7 days before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as global pandemic. The number
of infected people had crossed 80,000 globally. More importantly, more new cases were being reported
from other countries than from China.
India, whose health infrastructure has come under severe scrutiny in the management of the outbreak, had three
confirmed cases of coronavirus when it had dispatched the medical supplies to China but saw a rise in positive
cases later on a daily basis, along with several deaths. India was sending equipment and medical supplies to
China at a time when the disease was spreading globally and China was able to contain it geographically.
On 4 March, civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri informed the Rajya Sabha that “Universal screening of all
passengers coming in flights from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal,
30
Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Italy and Iran is being carried out at the airports having international
connectivity.”
At that time, coronavirus cases had been reported in as many as 70 countries. The US, which itself had banned
visitors from Europe and had already reported more than 150 cases with some deaths, was not seen as fit for
inclusion in the list of countries from where flyers were going to be ‘universally screened’.
Govt’s faulty assurances

It appears that the Members of Parliament were pro-active and regularly warning the Modi government of the
severity of the situation by asking pertinent questions. The queries from MPs started pouring in during February
and the frequency was higher in March. The Modi government kept assuring it was fully prepared to tackle the
problem, when it wasn’t.
On 4 March, Prime Minister Modi had announced that he won’t take part in any Holi Milan programme because
of the coronavirus threat — which suggests that he was aware of the problem and even knew that physical
distancing was one of the measures to stop the spread. His
31
ANNEXURE - 3
INDIAN COUNCIL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH RESEARCH
Revised Strategy of COVID19 testing in India (Version 3, dated 20/03/2020)
Background:
WHO declared an outbreak of febrile respiratory illness of unknown etiology in December 2019 from
Wuhan, Hubei province of China. Since its emergence, the disease rapidly spread to neighboring
provinces of China as well as to 182 other countries. Infection is spread through droplets of an infected
patient generated by coughing and sneezing or through prolonged contact with infected patients.
Currently, India has witnessed cases of COVID19 mostly related to travel and local transmission from
imported cases to their immediate contacts. Community transmission of the disease has not been
documented till now. Once community transmission is documented, the above testing strategy will
undergo changes to evolve into stage appropriate testing strategy.
Advisory for testing are being reviewed and updated periodically (09/03/2020, 16/03/2020 and
20/03/2020). The testing strategy is reviewed by the National Task Force constituted by Secretary
DHR & DG, ICMR and Chaired by Prof. V. K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog.
Objectives:
To contain the spread of infection of COVID19.

To provide reliable diagnosis to all individuals meeting the inclusion criteria of COVID19 testing.
Current testing strategy:
i. All symptomatic individuals who have undertaken international travel in the last 14 days:
ii. All symptomatic contacts of laboratory confirmed cases.
iii.All symptomatic health care workers.
iv.All hospitalized patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (fever AND cough and/or
shortness of breath).
v. Asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case should be tested once between
day 5 and day 14 of coming in his/her contact.
32
ANNEXURE - 4
Can India Keep up With COVID-19?

Poor infrastructure and a low testing rate for coronavirus threaten the world’s
most densely populated region.
By Angel L. Martínez Cantera
March 23, 2020

An Indian wearing face mask as a precaution against COVID-19 shops at a vegetable market
in Hyderabad, India, March 23, 2020.
Credit: AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.
MUMBAI – India’s financial hub and other cities like the capital, New Delhi, will remain shut after the partial lockdown on
Sunday. Declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week, yesterday’s 14-hour-long curfew aimed to prepare
citizens for what lays ahead in their struggle against COVID-19. However, many argue that these stringent measures are at
least one week late, given the threat of a severe outbreak looming over the world’s most densely populated region.
As early as March 15, at the behest of Modi himself, leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) gathered in a extraordinary videoconference to tackle the coronavirus crisis. In the group’s first meeting since 2014
— when political grievances stalled collaboration between members — New Delhi pledged $10 million to an emergency fund
to deal with COVID-19, which the WHO declared a global pandemic earlier this month.
Home to around 2 billion people or a fourth of the world’s population, SAARC’s member states — Afghanistan, Pakistan,
India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives — this weekend surpassed 1,300 cases among them, with
about a dozen deaths. That the novel coronavirus, which originated in China, is just now beginning to spread in South Asia —
only after earlier spikes in Europe and the United States — is surprising given that two major factors in the virus’ spread are
proximity and lack of hygiene. Overcrowded, insalubrious South Asia arguably is at serious risk.
As the world’s second most populous, country with nearly 1.3 billion people, India has been lauded by the WHO for its
“impressive” response to the outbreak.
As of the morning of March 23, COVID-19 has infected 415 and killed eight in India since it was first detected in the southern
state of Kerala in early February. But experts fear that the actual number of infections may be way higher as India ranks
33
among countries running fewer tests and has mainly focused on a narrow cluster of people. The WHO recently stressed that
extensive testing and quarantines are vital to fight COVID-19. India has changed its approach, though perhaps too late.
Insufficient Testing May Mask the True Number of Cases
As of March 23, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) reported that 17,493 individuals had been tested for
COVID-19 at 92 state-run labs across the country. In comparison to South Korea and Italy, India’s testing rate is staggeringly
low. South Korea and Italy had tested 295,647 and 148,657 people, respectively, as of March 18. As of March 17, South
Korea had carried out more than 5,500 tests per million people, and Italy more than 2,500 per million. With an average of just
over 10 tests per million people, India is vastly behind.
According to the Associated Press, Indian labs test 90 samples a day although they have capacity for 8,000. Even at such a
slow pace, this would have provided over 180,000 samples, had the initial 52 labs reportedly provided by Health Ministry
been running at their full potential in the last month.
“India could be the next coronavirus hotspot,” said the director of the Washington-based Center for Disease Dynamics,
Economics and Policy, Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan, in an interview on March 18, guessing that India has 10,000 or more
undetected coronavirus cases.
Following the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, both South Korea and Italy imposed lockdowns as they had fully entered into
stage 3 or community transmission — when infections are detected in people who had not traveled or been in contact with
travelers to virus hotspots.
India’s official stand is that the disease has not yet spread within the community. It considers itself still in stage 2 or local
transmission — wherein only travellers and their direct contacts are regarded as potentially infected. On that assumption, the
ICMR has only conducted one random test countrywide, so far, in the first half of March. Out of 1,020 samples of influenza-
like and severe acute respiratory-like illness, 500 have already returned negative. Yet again, local experts think that the sample
size may be too small and outdated to determine the actual level of transmission.
Nevertheless, India is working to scale up the pace of its testing, with a target of operating 116 government labs, in addition to
private labs. India has also ordered a million test kits and may ask the WHO for a million more. But these efforts may come
too late to take measures to flatten the curve of exponential spread of the virus within the community, threatening the collapse
of India’s under-resourced and uneven healthcare system.
Lack of Information and Poor Facilities
On March 19, more than a month and a half after India registered its first case of COVID-19 and a week after border
restrictions were imposed, Modi finally addressed the threats of the epidemic to the citizens of the world’s largest democracy.
Urging people to follow social distancing practices and to isolate elders, Modi appealed for cooperation in what he termed a
“Janata curfew” for Sunday, March 22. The curfew did not force people living in India to quarantine, but they were expected
to stay home voluntarily between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Sunday.
However, Modi’s speech didn’t counter misleading medical advice dangerously spread by his party members. For example, in
a public speech Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said that diseases like coronavirus
could be eliminated by practicing yoga. An elected BJP member from the state of Assam said that cow urine could treat the
virus.
Neither did Modi give a hint of financial support targeted to either sustain the Indian economy or help the country’s poor
health facilities cope with the emergency.
Before strengthening the control of movement across the country this weekend, some Indian state governments took
precautionary measures, including shutting schools and banning public gatherings. Likewise, authorities and medical staff
increased the screening of travelers at tourist hotspots, train stations, and airports. However, complaints of ill-treatment and
34
scarce information have added to the distress experienced by many who were forced into quarantine centers upon their arrival
to India. Those whose passports or travel history linked them to countries that have been severely affected by the coronavirus
outbreak encountered the most difficulty.
“I wanted to quarantine because I was coming from Spain and I’ve seen how dangerous this virus can be. But this experience
was horrifying,” says 23-year-old Aastha Goal, who was taken to a drug rehab center in Amritsar (Punjab) for 72 hours after
she landed in India.
“They told us we were going to a hospital to conduct the test for coronavirus. Nothing was true. They only checked our
temperature and I was actually concerned for my health under their supervision,” Goal explained, bursting into tears recalling
the ill-treatment she experienced. “Beds were so dirty that an old lady slept on the grass. I couldn’t use the filthy bathroom
and the staff replied that ‘this is no Spain or Canada.’ Facilities were only cleaned before an inspection came. They don’t care
for patients, they just fear their supervisors.”
Likewise, Spain-based young Indian student Anoushka K. described how her passport was taken away upon arrival at Delhi
International Airport and only returned after she was taken to a poorly equipped center on the western edge of the Indian
capital for a COVID-19 test. The test never happened. “Senior citizens and even a baby were put inside dirty premises. They
finally took us to a hotel but we left as they wanted us to pay for the stay.”
Poor and dirty facilities in the drug rehab center near Amritsar. Photo courtesy of Aastha Goal.
A lack of information and awareness are common across the country but not universal. The experience of 38-year-old Spanish
tourist Laia Matos is a stark contrast: “They provide food and good accommodation until the results of our test for COVID-19
are ready.” Laia and her friend were decently treated after initial chaos when police officers stopped their bus in Kerala. Many
tourists claim that guest houses have been ordered to deny accommodation to certain nationals after the coronavirus pandemic
was declared.
The apparent lack of preparation on the part of the Indian authorities, to both test individuals and inform the public, is
surprising given that India was among the first 15 countries to register a positive case outside China. The disparity in regional
resources is appalling considering it’s been a little more than a week since India invoked the Epidemic Diseases Act and
allocated a state response fund to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through the National Disaster Management Act. Although
India is still in the early stage of the epidemic, travelers are already exposed to havoc and overcrowded facilities. Some fear
35
that patients with COVID-19 will face mayhem in India’s overburdened healthcare infrastructure if the country becomes the
next coronavirus hotspot.
According to data from the World Bank, India doesn’t have even one hospital bed per 1,000 people. With a meager
expenditure of 1.28 percent of its GDP on healthcare, India only has eight doctors per 10,000 people — compared to 41 in
Italy and 71 in South Korea — and one state-run hospital for over 55,000 people. As infections increased in the last couple of
days, the government issued an advisory to both private and public hospitals and medical education institutions to mobilize
additional manpower and to set aside beds, isolation facilities, ventilators, and high-flow oxygen masks.
With a mere 8 percent of Indians older than 60, the country may not seen the deadly effects that the pandemic has caused in
nations like Italy, where about 23 percent of the population is over 65, propelling higher death rates. Yet, the absolute number
of elders in India amounts to 100 million people. Worryingly enough, with an under-resourced public healthcare system and
unaffordable private hospitals, the fate of the 275 million Indians living under the poverty line (22 percent of the population)
depends on how they fight a new virus by following unaccustomed social distancing and hygienic habits in overpopulated
shantytowns, which are already breeding-grounds for well-known preventable diseases.
Angel L. Martínez Cantera is a Spanish freelance photojournalist based in Asia since 2013. He has an MA in international
politics from City University of London (UK) and specializes in human rights and development.
36
ANNEXURE - 5
SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) Testing: Status Update 7 April 2020 09:00 PM IST
A total of 1,14,015 samples have been tested as on 7 April 2020, 9 PM IST. 4,616
Individuals have been confirmed amongst the suspected cases and contacts of known positive
in Gotham.
Today, on 7 April 2020, till 9 PM IST, 10,456 samples were reported. Of these, 481 were
positive of SARS-CoV-2.
37
ANNEXURE - 6

March 23, 2020

38
virus.
39
was declared.
40
41
ANNEXURE - 7
Water, sanitation, hygiene and waste

management for the COVID-19 virus
Technical brief
3 March 2020
1. Introduction and background

In late 2019, an acute respiratory disease emerged, known as novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The pathogen
responsible for COVID-19 is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, also referred to as the COVID-
19 virus), a member of the coronavirus family. In response to the growing spread of COVID-19, WHO has published a
number of technical guidance documents on specific topics, including infection prevention and control (IPC). These
documents are available at https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/infection-
prevention-and-control.
This technical brief supplement the IPC documents by referencing and summarizing the
WHO guidance on water, sanitation and health care waste that is relevant to viruses, including
coronaviruses. This technical brief is written, in particular, for water and sanitation practitioners and
providers. It is also for health care providers who want to know more about water, sanitation and hygiene
(WASH) risks and practices.
The provision of safe water, sanitation and hygienic conditions is essential to protecting human health
during all infectious disease outbreaks, including the COVID-19 outbreak. Ensuring good and consistently
applied WASH and waste management practices in communities, homes, schools, marketplaces and health
care facilities will further help to prevent human-to-human transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
The most important information concerning WASH and the COVID-19 virus is summarized here.
 Frequent and proper hand hygiene is one of the most important measures that can be used to
prevent infection with the COVID-19 virus. WASH practitioners should work to enable more
frequent and regular hand hygiene by improving facilities and using proven behaviour change
techniques.
 WHO guidance on the safe management of drinking-water and sanitation services applies to the
COVID-19 outbreak. Extra measures are not needed. In particular, disinfection will facilitate more rapid
die-off of the COVID-19 virus.
 Many co-benefits will be realized by safely managing water and sanitation services and applying
good hygiene practices. Such efforts will prevent many other infectious diseases, which cause millions
of deaths each year.
Currently, there is no evidence about the survival of the COVID-19 virus in drinking-water or sewage. The
morphology and chemical structure of the COVID-19 virus are similar to those of other surrogate human
42
coronaviruses for which there are data about both survival in the environment and effective inactivation
measures. Thus, this brief draws upon the existing evidence base and, more generally, existing WHO guidance
on how to protect against viruses in sewage and drinking-water. This document is based on the current
knowledge of the COVID-19 virus and it will be updated as new information becomes available.
1.1 COVID-19 transmission

There are two main routes of transmission of the COVID-19 virus: respiratory and contact. Respiratory droplets are
generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Any person who is in close contact with someone who has
respiratory symptoms (for example, sneezing, coughing) is at risk of being exposed to potentially infective respiratory
droplets (1). Droplets may also land on surfaces where the virus could remain viable; thus, the immediate environment
of an infected individual can serve as a source of transmission (known as contact transmission).
The risk of catching the COVID-19 virus from the faeces of an infected person appears to be low. There is some evidence that
the COVID-19 virus may lead to intestinal infection and be present in faeces. Approximately 2−10% of cases of confirmed
COVID-19 disease presented with diarrhoea (2−4), and two studies detected COVID-19 viral RNA fragments in the faecal
matter of COVID-19 patients (5,6). However, to date only one study has cultured the COVID-19 virus from a single stool
specimen (7). There have been no reports of faecal−oral transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
1.2 Persistence of the COVID-19 virus in drinking-water, faeces and sewage and on
surfaces.
While persistence in drinking-water is possible, there is no current evidence from surrogate human
coronaviruses that they are present in surface or groundwater sources or transmitted through contaminated
drinking -water. The COVID-19 virus is an enveloped virus, with a fragile outer membrane. Generally,
enveloped viruses are less stable in the environment and are more susceptible to oxidants, such as chlorine.
While there is no evidence to date about survival of the COVID-19 virus in water or sewage, the virus is likely to
become inactivated significantly faster than non-enveloped human enteric viruses with known waterborne
transmission (such as adenoviruses, norovirus, rotavirus and hepatitis A). For example, one study found that a
surrogate human coronavirus survived only 2 days in dechlorinated tap water and in hospital wastewater at 20°
C (8). Other studies concur, noting that the human coronaviruses transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus and
mouse hepatitis virus demonstrated a 99.9% die-off in from 2 days (9) at 23° C to 2 weeks (10) at 25° C. Heat,
high or low pH, sunlight and common disinfectants (such as chlorine) all facilitate die off.
It is not certain how long the virus that causes COVID-19 survives on surfaces, but it seems likely to behave like
other coronaviruses. A recent review of the survival of human coronaviruses on surfaces found large variability,
ranging from 2 hours to 9 days (11). The survival time depends on a number of factors, including the type of
surface, temperature, relative humidity and specific strain of the virus. The same review also found that
effective inactivation could be achieved within 1 minute using common disinfectants, such as 70% ethanol or
sodium hypochlorite (for details, see Section 2.5 Cleaning practices).
1.3 Keeping water supplies safe

The COVID-19 virus has not been detected in drinking-water supplies, and based on current evidence, the risk
to water supplies is low (12). Laboratory studies of surrogate coronaviruses that took place in well-controlled
environments indicated that the virus could remain infectious in water contaminated with faeces for days to
weeks (10). A number of measures can be taken to improve water safety, starting with protecting the source
water; treating water at the point of distribution, collection or consumption; and ensuring that treated water is
safely stored at home in regularly cleaned and covered containers.
Conventional, centralized water treatment methods that utilize filtration and disinfection should inactivate the
COVID-19 virus. Other human coronaviruses have been shown to be sensitive to chlorination and disinfection with
ultraviolet (UV) light (13). As enveloped viruses are surrounded by a lipid host cell membrane, which is not robust, the
COVID-19 virus is likely to be more sensitive to chlorine and other oxidant disinfection processes than many other
viruses, such as coxsackieviruses, which have a protein coat. For effective centralized disinfection, there should be a
43
residual concentration of free chlorine of ≥0.5 mg/L after at least 30 minutes of contact time at pH < 8.0 (12). A
chlorine residual should be maintained throughout the distribution system.
In places where centralized water treatment and safe piped water supplies are not available, a number of household
water treatment technologies are effective in removing or destroying viruses, including boiling or using high-
performing ultrafiltration or nanomembrane filters, solar irradiation and, in non-turbid waters, UV irradiation and
appropriately dosed free chlorine.1
1.4 Safely managing wastewater and faecal waste

There is no evidence to date that the COVID-19 virus has been transmitted via sewerage systems with or without
wastewater treatment. Furthermore, there is no evidence that sewage or wastewater treatment workers contracted
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which is caused by another type of coronavirus that caused a large
outbreak of acute respiratory illness in 2003. As part of an integrated public health policy, wastewater carried in
sewerage systems should be treated in well-designed and well-managed centralized wastewater treatment works. Each
stage of treatment (as well as retention time and dilution) results in a further reduction of the potential risk. A waste
stabilization pond (that is, an oxidation pond or lagoon) is generally considered to be a practical and simple
wastewater treatment technology that is particularly well suited to destroying pathogens, as relatively long retention
times (that is, 20 days or longer) combined with sunlight, elevated pH levels, biological activity and other factors serve
to accelerate pathogen destruction. A final disinfection step may be considered if existing wastewater treatment plants
are not optimized to remove viruses. Best practices for protecting the health of workers at sanitation treatment
facilities should be followed. Workers should wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), which includes
protective outerwear, gloves, boots, goggles or a face shield, and a mask; they should perform hand hygiene
frequently; and they should avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
2. WASH in health care settings

Existing recommendations for water, sanitation and hygiene measures in health care settings are important for providing
adequate care for patients and protecting patients, staff 2 and caregivers from infection risks (14). The following actions are
particularly important: (i) managing excreta
1 Generally, the listed technologies are effective in inactivating viruses, but performance can vary widely
depending on the manufacturing process, type of materials, design and use. It is important to verify the performance
of a specific technology.
2
Staff includes not only health care staff but also ancillary staff, such as cleaning staff, hygienists, laundry staff
and waste workers.
(faeces and urine) safely, including ensuring that no one comes into contact with it and that it is treated and disposed
of correctly; (ii) engaging in frequent hand hygiene using appropriate techniques; (iii) implementing regular cleaning
and disinfection practices; and (iv) safely managing health care waste. Other important and recommended measures
include providing sufficient safe drinking-water to staff, caregivers and patients; ensuring that personal hygiene can
be maintained, including hand hygiene, for patients, staff and caregivers; regularly laundering bedsheets and patients’
clothing; providing adequate and accessible toilets (including separate facilities for confirmed and suspected cases of
COVID-19 infection); and segregating and safely disposing of health care waste. For details on these
recommendations, please refer to Essential environmental health standards in health care (14).
2.1 Hand hygiene practices

Hand hygiene is extremely important. Cleaning hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub should be
performed according to the instructions known as “My 5 moments for hand hygiene” (15). If hands are not visibly
dirty, the preferred method is to perform hand hygiene with an alcohol-based hand rub for 20−30 seconds using the
appropriate technique (16). When hands are visibly dirty, they should be washed with soap and water for 40−60
seconds using the appropriate technique (17). Hand hygiene should be performed at all five moments, including before
putting on PPE and after removing it, when changing gloves, after any contact with a patient with suspected or
confirmed COVID-19 infection or their waste, after contact with any respiratory secretions, before eating and after
using the toilet (18). If an alcohol-based hand rub and soap are not available, then using chlorinated water (0.05%) for
44
handwashing is an option, but it is not ideal because frequent use may lead to dermatitis, which could increase the risk
of infection and asthma and because prepared dilutions might be inaccurate (19). However, if other options are not
available or feasible, using chlorinated water for handwashing is an option.
Functional hand hygiene facilities should be present for all health care workers at all points of care and in areas where
PPE is put on or taken off. In addition, functional hand hygiene facilities should be available for all patients, family
members and visitors, and should be available within 5 m of toilets, as well as in waiting and dining rooms and other
public areas.
2.2 Sanitation and plumbing

People with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 disease should be provided with their own flush toilet or latrine
that has a door that closes to separate it from the patient’s room. Flush toilets should operate properly and have
functioning drain traps. When possible, the toilet should be flushed with the lid down to prevent droplet splatter
and aerosol clouds. If it is not possible to provide separate toilets, the toilet should be cleaned and disinfected at
least twice daily by a trained cleaner wearing PPE (that is, gown, gloves, boots, mask, and a face shield or
goggles). Furthermore, and consistent with existing guidance, staff and health care workers should have toilet
facilities that are separate from those used by all patients.
WHO recommends the use of standard, well-maintained plumbing, such as sealed bathroom drains, and backflow valves on
sprayers and faucets to prevent aerosolized faecal matter from entering the plumbing or ventilation system ( 20), together
with standard wastewater treatment (21). Faulty plumbing and a poorly designed air ventilation system were implicated as
contributing factors to the spread of the aerosolized SARS coronavirus in a high-rise apartment building in Hong Kong in
2003 (22). Similar concerns have been raised about the spread of the COVID-19 virus from faulty toilets in high-rise
apartment buildings (23). If health care facilities are connected to sewers, a risk assessment should be conducted to confirm
that wastewater is contained within the system (that is, the system does not leak) prior to its arrival at a functioning treatment
or disposal site, or both. Risks pertaining to the adequacy of the collection system or to treatment and disposal methods
should be assessed following a safety planning approach (24), with critical control points prioritized for mitigation.
For smaller health care facilities in low-resource settings, if space and local conditions allow, pit latrines may be the preferred
option. Standard precautions should be taken to prevent contamination of the environment by excreta. These precautions
include ensuring that at least 1.5 m exist between the bottom of the pit and the groundwater table (more space should be
allowed in coarse sands, gravels and fissured formations) and that the latrines are located at least 30 m horizontally from any
groundwater source (including both shallow wells and boreholes) (21). If there is a high groundwater table or a lack of space
to dig pits, excreta should be retained in impermeable storage containers and left for as long as feasibly possible to allow for a
reduction in virus levels before moving it off-site for additional treatment or safe disposal, or both. A two-tank system with
parallel tanks would help to facilitate inactivation by maximizing retention times, as one tank could be used until full, then
allowed to sit while the next tank is being filled. Particular care should be taken to avoid splashing and the release of droplets
while cleaning or emptying tanks.
2.3 Toilets and the handling of faeces

It is critical to conduct hand hygiene when there is suspected or direct contact with faeces (if hands are dirty, then soap
and water are preferred to the use of an alcohol-based hand rub). If the patient is unable to use a latrine, excreta
should be collected in either a diaper or a clean bedpan and immediately and carefully disposed of into a separate
toilet or latrine used only by suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19. In all health care settings, including those
with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases, faeces must be treated as a biohazard and handled as little as possible.
Anyone handling faeces should follow WHO contact and droplet precautions (18) and use PPE to prevent exposure,
including long-sleeved gowns, gloves, boots, masks, and goggles or a face shield. If diapers are used, they should be
disposed of as infectious waste as they would be in all situations. Workers should be properly trained in how to put on,
use and remove PPE so that these protective barriers are maintained and not breached (25). If PPE is not available or
the supply is limited, hand hygiene should be regularly practiced, and workers should keep at least 1 m distance from
any suspected or confirmed cases.
If a bedpan is used, after disposing of excreta from it, the bedpan should be cleaned with a neutral detergent and
water, disinfected with a 0.5% chlorine solution, and then rinsed with clean water; the rinse water should be
45
disposed of in a drain or a toilet or latrine. Other effective disinfectants include commercially available
quaternary ammonium compounds, such as cetylpyridinium chloride, used according to manufacturer’s
instructions, and peracetic or peroxyacetic acid at concentrations of 500−2000 mg/L (26).
Chlorine is ineffective for disinfecting media containing large amounts of solid and dissolved organic
matter. Therefore, there is limited benefit to adding chlorine solution to fresh excreta and, possibly, this
may introduce risks associated with splashing.
2.4 Emptying latrines and holding tanks, and transporting excreta off-site
There is no reason to empty latrines and holding tanks of excreta from suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases unless they
are at capacity. In general, the best practices for safely managing excreta should be followed. Latrines or holding tanks
should be designed to meet patient demand, considering potential sudden increases in cases, and there should be a regular
schedule for emptying them based on the wastewater volumes generated. PPE (that is, a long-sleeved gown, gloves, boots,
masks, and goggles or a face shield) should be worn at all times when handling or transporting excreta offsite, and great care
should be taken to avoid splashing. For crews, this includes pumping out tanks or unloading pumper trucks. After handling
the waste and once there is no risk of further exposure, individuals should safely remove their PPE and perform hand hygiene
before entering the transport vehicle. Soiled PPE should be put in a sealed bag for later safe laundering (see Section 2.5,
Cleaning practices). Where there is no off-site treatment, in-situ treatment can be done using lime.
Such treatment involves using a 10% lime slurry added at 1 part lime slurry per 10 parts of waste.
2.5 Cleaning practices

Existing recommended cleaning and disinfection procedures for health care facilities should be followed consistently
and correctly (19). Laundry should be done and surfaces in all environments in which COVID-19 cases receive care
(for example, treatment units, community care centres) should be cleaned at least once a day and when a patient is
discharged (27). Many disinfectants are active against enveloped viruses, such as the COVID-19 virus, including
commonly used hospital disinfectants. Currently, WHO recommends using:
70% ethyl alcohol to disinfect small areas between uses, such as reusable dedicated equipment (for
example, thermometers);
sodium hypochlorite at 0.5% (equivalent to 5000 ppm) for disinfecting surfaces.
All individuals dealing with soiled bedding, towels and clothes from patients with COVID-19 infection should wear
appropriate PPE before touching it, including heavy duty gloves, a mask, eye protection (goggles or a face shield), a
long-sleeved gown, an apron if the gown is not fluid resistant, and boots or closed shoes. They should perform hand
hygiene after exposure to blood or body fluids and after removing PPE. Soiled linen should be placed in clearly
labelled, leak-proof bags or containers, after carefully removing any solid excrement and putting it in a covered bucket
to be disposed of in a toilet or latrine. Machine washing with warm water at 60−90° C with laundry detergent is
recommended. The laundry can then be dried according to routine procedures. If machine washing is not possible,
linens can be soaked in hot water and soap in a large drum using a stick to stir and being careful to avoid splashing.
The drum should then be emptied, and the linens soaked in 0.05% chlorine for approximately 30 minutes. Finally, the
laundry should be rinsed with clean water and the linens allowed to dry fully in sunlight.
If excreta are on surfaces (such as linens or the floor), the excreta should be carefully removed with towels and immediately
safely disposed of in a toilet or latrine. If the towels are single use, they should be treated as infectious waste; if they are
reusable, they should be treated as soiled linens. The area should then be cleaned and disinfected (with, for example, 0.5%
free chlorine solution), following published guidance on cleaning and disinfection procedures for spilled body fluids (27).
2.6 Safely disposing of greywater or water from washing PPE, surfaces and floors.
Current WHO recommendations are to clean utility gloves or heavy duty, reusable plastic aprons with soap and water and
then decontaminate them with 0.5% sodium hypochlorite solution after each use. Single-use gloves (that is, nitrile or latex)
and gowns should be discarded after each use and not reused; hand hygiene should be performed after PPE is removed. If
greywater includes disinfectant used in prior cleaning, it does not need to be chlorinated or treated again. However, it is
important that such water is disposed of in drains connected to a septic system or sewer or in a soak-away pit. If greywater is
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disposed of in a soakaway pit, the pit should be fenced off within the health facility grounds to prevent tampering and to
avoid possible exposure in the case of overflow.
2.7 Safe management of health care waste

Best practices for safely managing health care waste should be followed, including assigning responsibility and sufficient
human and material resources to dispose of such waste safely. There is no evidence that direct, unprotected human contact
during the handling of health care waste has resulted in the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. All health care waste
produced during the care of COVID-19 patients should be collected safely in designated containers and bags, treated, and
then safely disposed of or treated, or both, preferably on-site. If waste is moved off-site, it is critical to appropriate PPE (that
is, boots, apron, long-sleeved gown, thick gloves, mask, and goggles or a face shield) and perform hand hygiene after
removing it. For more information refer to the WHO guidance, Safe management of wastes from health-care activities
(28).
3. Considerations for WASH practices in homes and communities
Upholding best WASH practices in the home and community is also important for preventing the
spread of COVID-19 and when caring for confirmed cases at home. Regular and correct hand
hygiene is of particular importance.
3.1 Hand hygiene

Hand hygiene in non−health care settings is one of the most important measures that can be used to prevent COVID-19
infection. In homes, schools and crowded public spaces − such as markets, places of worship, and train or bus stations −
regular handwashing should occur before preparing food, before and after eating, after using the toilet or changing a child’s
diaper and after touching animals. Functioning handwashing facilities with water and soap should be available within 5 m of
toilets.
3.2 Treatment and handling requirements for excreta

Best WASH practices, particularly handwashing with soap and clean water, should be strictly applied and
maintained because these provide an important additional barrier to COVID-19 transmission and to the
transmission of infectious diseases in general (17). Consideration should be given to safely managing human
excreta throughout the entire sanitation chain, starting with ensuring access to regularly cleaned, accessible and
functioning toilets or latrines and to the safe containment, conveyance, treatment and eventual disposal of
sewage.
When there are suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the home setting, immediate action must be taken to protect
caregivers and other family members from the risk of contact with respiratory secretions and excreta that may contain the
COVID-19 virus. Frequently touched surfaces throughout the patient’s care area should be cleaned regularly, such as beside
tables, bed frames and other bedroom furniture. Bathrooms should be cleaned and disinfected at least once a day. Regular
household soap or detergent should be used for cleaning first and then, after rinsing, regular household disinfectant
containing 0.5% sodium hypochlorite (that is, equivalent to 5000 ppm or 1 part household bleach with 5% sodium
hypochlorite to 9 parts water) should be applied.
PPE should be worn while cleaning, including mask, goggles, a fluid-resistant apron and gloves (29),
and hand hygiene with an alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water should be performed after
removing PPE.
Note on document development and background

The content in this technical brief is based on the information currently available about the COVID-19 virus and the
persistence of other viruses in the coronavirus family. It reflects input and advice from microbiologists and virologists,
infection control experts, and those with practical knowledge about WASH and IPC in emergencies and disease
outbreaks.
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Contributors
This technical brief was written by staff from WHO and UNICEF. In addition, a number of experts and WASH
practitioners contributed. They include Matt Arduino, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States
of America; David Berendes, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States of America; Lisa
Casanova, Georgia State University, United States of America; David Cunliffe, SA Health, Australia; Rick Gelting, US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States of America; Dr Thomas Handzel, US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, United States of America; Paul Hunter, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom; Ana
Maria de Roda Husman, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands; Peter
Maes, Médicins Sans Frontières, Belgium; Molly Patrick, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
United States of America; Mark Sobsey, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, United States of
America.
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2009;43(7):1893–8. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2009.02.002.
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13. SARS-CoV-2 − water and sanitation. Adelaide: Water Research Australia; 2020
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N Engl J Med. 2004;350(17): 1731-9. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa032867.
23. Regan H. How can the coronavirus spread through bathroom pipes? Experts are investigating in Hong Kong. CNN. 12
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their contacts: interim guidance, 4 February 2020. (https://www.who.int/publications-detail/home-care-for-patients-with-suspected-
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• World Health Organization 2020. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC
BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence.
WHO reference number: WHO/2019-NcOV/IPC_WASH/2020.1
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ANNEXURE - 8
India coronavirus cases rise amid fears true

figure much higher
Low levels of testing and poor access to healthcare means many people not reporting
Wed 1 Apr 2020 15.59 BSTLast modified on Wed 1 Apr 2020 16.35 BST
Police cordon off the Nizamuddin area of Delhi on Wednesday after several members of an Islamic congregation tested positive for
coronavirus. Photograph: Amarjeet Kumar Singh/SOPA Images/Rex/Shutterstock
Doubt has been cast over India’s claim that it has no community transmission of coronavirus
after the country reported its biggest daily rise in number of cases so far, connected to a
religious gathering held in Delhi two weeks ago.
India reported a record increase of 386 cases in the past 24 hours, pushing the total number to
1,637, according to the country’s health ministry. The death toll is now 38.
In another worrying development, the first coronavirus case was also confirmed in Mumbai’s
Dharavi slum, which is India’s largest and is home to almost one million people living in
close, unsanitary quarters. The 56-year-old man was taken to Sion hospital and eight of his
family members placed into quarantine.
Yet for a densely populated country of 1.3 billion people, the number of cases is still relatively
low compared with Europe and the US, and believed to be linked to both low levels of testing
and poor access to an already overstretched healthcare system with people not reporting their
symptoms.
India spends only about 1.3% of its GDP on public health, among the lowest in the world.
Only 47,951 tests have been done so far and there are just 51 government-approved testing
centres across the country.
The jump in number of cases was linked to an annual two-day convention of the Muslim sect
Tablighi Jamaat on 13 March, for which about 3,500 people gathered from all over the country
and abroad in the south Delhi neighbourhood of Nizamuddin. Almost 2,000 stayed in the area
for days afterwards, and the area has become the coronavirus hotspot of India.
57
The outbreak from the Nizamuddin mosque gathering also inflamed religious tensions in a city
still reeling from communal riots last month that took 50 lives, with Hindu mobs rampaging
through the streets attacking Muslims in their homes.
Across Indian media and social networks, Muslims were blamed for spreading the virus while
“Corona Jihad” began to trend on Twitter.
The gathering also appeared to trigger a spread of the virus across numerous states from
Kashmir to West Bengal by those who returned home afterwards. So far, 10 people who
attended the event have died while 1,800 people have been sent to nine hospitals and
quarantine centres across the country.
However, despite the jump in number of cases this week, the Indian government insists there
is still no community transmission and that cases have been either from those who travelled
abroad or in localised incidents. Lav Agarwal, the joint secretary in the health ministry, told
reporters: “Nowhere have we said that there is a community transmission. We are still in a
local transmission in this country.”
Raman R Gangakhedkar, the head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at the Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR), also insisted there was “no reason to panic at the
moment”. Nonetheless, the ICMR conceded last month that community transmission was
“inevitable” in India.
“Until we see a significant number of cases to indicate community transmission, let us not
over interpret things,” said Gangakhedkar.
Doctors in hospitals across India said the lack of proper protective equipment available for
medical staff, including basic masks, meant that patients presenting with coronavirus
symptoms were being turned away. Doctors in Kolkata described how they were made to wear
plastic raincoats to examine possible coronavirus patients, while a doctor in a Delhi hospital
resorted to wearing a motorcycle helmet to cover his face.
One junior doctor working in a Kolkata hospital where coronavirus patients are being treated,
described how “for over a week, we came in close contact with suspected corona patients
without proper protective gear … We all are left at the mercy of God.”
The doctor also cast aspersions on the claim that the disease was not already spreading within
impoverished communities.
“Every day thousands of people gather here, seeking treatment for many infectious diseases.
Last week, I noticed, hundreds of people, with many coughing, having fever and breathing
problems stood on queue waiting for their turn to be examined by us,” he said.
“They stood in the queue for hours and many of them were coughing and sneezing. I have
every reason to believe many were carriers of Covid-19 who spread the infection to people in
that same line, who in turn are now spreading it in the community … hundred or thousand
times more people should be tested for the infection. Otherwise, the coronavirus situation will
turn unmanageable.”
58
A recent report, jointly published by three American universities and the Delhi School of
Economics, claimed that India could have as many as 1.3 million coronavirus infections by
mid-May.
Testing capacity may about to increase. Last week, Mylab Discovery, a company based in the
city of Pune, became the first Indian firm to get full approval to make and sell testing kits,
which have already shipped to labs in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Bangalore. Each Mylab
kit can test 100 samples and costs 1,200 rupees.
Private company Practo also announced it has been authorised by the government to conduct
private coronavirus tests, which can be booked directly. The facility is available only for
Mumbai residents but they say it will soon be widened out to the whole country.
59
ANNEXURE - 9
Over 50 doctors, medical staff test positive for Covid-19;

govt probing if they got infected from patients
Over 50 doctors and medical staff have tested positive for Covid-19 till now, sources in the
health ministry have said. This is a trend the government is keeping a close watch on in order
to understand whether those infected are from patients being treated or had a contact history
from outside their work space.
Abhishek Bhalla
New Delhi
April 3, 2020
UPDATED: April 3, 2020 15:58 IS
In the wake shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at hospitals, doctors and medical staff can be most vulnerable while treating
novel coronavirus patients. (Photo: PTI)
Over 50 doctors and medical staff have tested positive for Covid-19 till now, sources in the
health ministry have said.
This is a trend the government is keeping a close watch on in order to understand whether
those infected are from patients being treated or had a contact history from outside their work
space.
"Approximately there are more than 50 cases of medical staff that have tested positive. But not
all got it from patients they were treating. In some cases it has been noticed that they came in
contact with persons who had a travel history abroad," an official said.
Officials say contact tracing of such cases is being carried out to accurately assess the reason
for them getting infected.
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staff can be most vulnerable while treating novel coronavirus patients.
In Italy, a high percentage of medical staff who came in touch with patients in hospitals were
infected with the deadly virus, with many deaths also reported among the medical fraternity.
As numbers in India continue to rise, medical staff are part of the high risk group.
One doctor from the Indian Army and another one from the Central Reserve Police Force have
also tested positive for Covid-19.
A doctor in Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) also tested positive. The
senior resident doctor from the Physiology Department, who tested positive for Covid-19, had
no travel history.
62
ANNEXURE - 10
Coronavirus in India: Another Dharavi-related case, 54-year-

old sanitation worker tests positive
A 54-year-old man from Mumbai's Worli, who worked at Dharavi, has tested positive for novel coronavirus.
Dharavi is a densely populated area in Mumbai with over 15 lakh people, spread over 613 hectares. (Photo: PTI)
Aday after a Dharavi resident who had contracted novel coronavirus passed away, a 54- year
old sweeper from the locality tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.
The sanitation worker stays in Worli area of Mumbai but would go to work near the Mahim
Fatak road in Dharavi.
As per health department officials, the patient is attached to the Solid Waste Department of
Brihhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). He developed symptoms around three days
back following which he was quarantined at the Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai where he
tested positive on Thursday.
Densely populated Dharavi is famous as one of the largest slums in Asia.
Amid fears of spread of infection after the death of the 46-year-old on Wednesday, the
authorities had sealed the housing society.
The Covid-19 patient stayed in a building constructed under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority
(SRA) scheme.
A doctor and his staffer were also quarantined as the deceased had visited their clinic on
March 23. He, however, had no foreign travel history, a health official of the BMC said.
63
ANNEXURE - 11
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ANNEXURE - 12
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ANNEXURE - 13
NEWS / LABOUR
“We are deserted”: Migrant workers forced to

walk hundreds of kilometres due to lockdown
KAUSHAL SHROFF
26 March 2020
Migrant workers walk along a road to return to their villages after Prime Minister Narendra
Modi announced an unanticipated 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spread of COVID-
19, in New Delhi. This triggered a wave of panic, leaving scores of workers to fend for
themselves without any administrative assistance from the central government machinery.
At 6 pm on 25 March, Naru Lal Bargot, and eight other daily-wage labourers were
walking through a forest like area near Palghar in Maharashtra from Borivali, a
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suburb of Mumbai. They had started at 8 am that morning and were now 90
kilometres ahead. Bargot, like many other casual workers and migrant
labourers had set out from Mumbai after Prime Minister Narendra Modi
declared an unanticipated 21-day nationwide lockdown on the night of 24
March to contain the COVID-19 outbreak in India. This triggered a wave of
panic, leaving scores of workers to fend for themselves without any
administrative assistance from the central government machinery.
In the wake of the lockdown, thousands of workers across India, like Bargot, are
left with no option but to walk from their urban dwellings to their villages and
home towns because bus and train services have screeched to a halt. Bargot’s
journey seems particularly arduous as he has to make it all the way to Lohagarh
village in Pratapgarh district of Rajasthan, a whole 700 kilometres from Borivali.
Bargot who has been working in Mumbai for the past 15 years said that he works
under a local contractor who pays him for marble and tile-tting work. He added
that he did not nd any food by the roadside to eat throughout the day and that all
he could do is drink water and walk. Bargot and his group were stopped once at
Mumbai’s Mira Road by the police and told to go back. When they told the
police that they have nothing to eat or drink, the police ignored them and told
them to return to Borivali. Desperate, the entourage backed away and then made
their way ahead through routes where the police were not stationed. Later, when
they came across more police personnel, the group started splitting up and the
men started walking one behind the other, waiting at intervals, instead of moving
ahead as a group.
“At night, we will keep walking. Who knows, if we nd a place to stop, we will
stop,” Bargot said, when I asked him how long he planned to keep going.
“Modiji ko hamne Ram-Ram bol diya”—We have bid our good-byes to

Modiji— Bargot said. “He did not give us time. On 21 March, he said that on
Sunday no one should go out and then yesterday he added another 20 days.”
He continued, “What are we supposed to eat, what are we supposed to do,
what are we supposed to earn? We earn our living through daily wage. We
74
don’t have a permanent job that will get us monthly salary.” Bargot told me
he has four children waiting for him, and does not know how he would feed
them.
On 23 March, the ministry of labour and employment issued an advisory calling on

private and public entities to “extend their coordination” in the “backdrop of such a
challenging situation” by not “terminating their employees, particularly casual or
contractual workers from a job or reduce their wages.” The direction was issued in
the nature of an advisory without any attendant punitive measures. In the absence of
these measures, employers of both small-scale units as well as major industries have
taken to retrenching contractual and casual workers. Such workers will continue to
scramble in these tough times with minimal social security and prospects of an
assured job even when the 21-day lockdown period ends.
Rajiv Khandelwal of Aajeevika Bureau, a trust based in Rajasthan that works

towards addressing economic and socio-legal problems of migrant workers,
said that the helpline run by his organisation has been continuously receiving
distress calls from workers on the ground. The trust operates from 17 dierent
eld oces spread across Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
“A lot of calls that we are receiving are of the same kind,” Rajiv said. “For
instance, ‘We are deserted here, please get us out of hereʼ or, ‘We can’t nd a
bus, how do we get back home,ʼ or 'We have nothing to eat, please get us
some foodʼ … There are thousands of people trying to get back home and to
prevent that from happening, I think, is preposterous. Many of these people
75
are walking, are at the borders trying to get into their home states but are
being denied entry.” He continued, “These aren’t Syrians trying to enter
Turkey. They are legitimately trying to get back home. What will they stay
back for? What is there in the cities for them now? There are no jobs, there is
nothing to eat, shops are closed. This whole idea of lockdown as a war-time
diktat will have a major humanitarian crisis kind of eect.”
India’s form of employment has a major role in this complete abandonment of

workers. Ninety percent of India’s workforce is
employed(https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/9/budget-2020-21/low-growth-
no-employment-and-no-hope-budget-.html) in the informal sector. Despite
their preponderant size, these workers command little to no social security.
According to the Periodic Labour Survey
(http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/les/publication_reports/Annual
%20Report%18_31052019.pd),
for the year 2017-2018 average wage earnings per day by casual labourers in
urban areas clocks in between Rs 314 to Rs 335 among men and between Rs
186 to Rs 201 for women. To add to this, the Employees’ State Insurance
Corporation and the Employees Provident Fund—two schemes that provide
social security to workers in India—fail to cater to the needs of informal
sector workers in India. The ESIC, for instance, is applicable to premises where
ten or more workers are employed. However, as per the Economic Census of
2013-14
(http://www.icssrdataservice.in/datarepository/index.php/catalog/146/study-
description), a little over 98 percent of Indian entities employ less than ten
workers, which eectively means that a vast majority of workers fall outside
the purview of social security.
On 26 March, the union nance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced
packages under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana for those whose lives have been
severely impacted by the lockdown. The total outlay for the scheme is Rs 1.7
lakh crore which aims to extend help to migrant workers, sanitation workers,
76
Accredited Social Health Activists as well as urban and rural poor via direct
benet transfers to their accounts and through food rations availed via
administrative routes.
Under the scheme the regular wages received under the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme have been hiked from Rs 182 a
day to Rs 202 a day. This hike according to the government is likely to result in
an additional income of Rs 2,000 for every worker. Theoretically, this measure
seems good on paper, however, the realities on the ground are starkly dierent.
Work across India has largely come to a halt under the MGNREGA scheme due
to the lockdown, eectively highlighting the hike as a purely cosmetic measure. It
also fails to address the issue of many daily wage labourers either stuck without
employment in cities or those who are in transit to their homes.
While the ecacy of the central government’s scheme will be seen in the next
few days, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala state government has unveiled a
package of Rs 20,000 crore to revive the state economy. Meanwhile, the Delhi
government has opened up a number of night shelters for migrants and poor
people deprived of food during the lockdown. On 24 March it also announced
cash support of Rs 5,000 for all unemployed construction workers per month
until the end of the lockdown.
“The informal sector employs ninety percent of our workforce and for them to
not earn enough is a problem, of course, but what is due to them needs to be
paid to them,” Khandelwal said. “We are already getting cases of wage
denials. We got a call where workers told us that the employer called them
back and told them to sign a request or aavedan, where the workers are
requesting that they should extend work without pay. Think about it. Will a
worker ever agree to this?” He continued, “Indian employers are notoriously
manipulative. If they get an opportunity, they will want to pull o something
like this...Right now, workers’ need should be primary. Their wages need to
be protected in the long term as well as the short-term.” Khandelwal argued
that “even while this 21-day lockdown goes on, the presence of migrants in
77
cities has to be of primary focus because these are people with no claims to
the city. They don’t even have the necessary documentation of the city.
Whether they get the services due to them is a major issue.”
Divya Varma, the programme manager at Aajeevika Bureau, told me that many
workers who have returned to their hometown are being stigmatised by others in
their villages. “Rumours are rife in villages that those who have come back are
carriers of the disease,” she said. “Everyone has that fear, everyone is scared that
those who have come from outside are suering from the disease. There are cases of
people physically harming those who have come back from the cities.”
Varma said that a large number of workers are stuck in transit. “We have a
number of cases where people are walking from Mumbai, from Surat, from
Ahmedabad to Rajasthan.” She continued, “Many of them have been on foot
for two or three days, trying to reach their villages. They are also going
hungry because they don’t have food to eat, they don’t have supplies. They
are also being harassed by the police. On top of it, the police is also closing
down a lot of eateries so workers are not able to access food from there
either.”
“The government gave one to two days’ notice when they were dealing with
foreign travellers, students and other Indians stuck abroad, Varma said.
“There were protocols instituted, people were brought back and screened and
those who had symptoms were tested. Those protocols could be instituted here
as well.” She continued, “The same courtesies should be extended to the
people within our border who are much poorer, from vulnerable background,
who really need government support.”
KAUSHAL SHROFF (/AUTHOR/5) is a staff writer at The Caravan
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ANNEXURE - 14
A sobbing child migrant worker stranded in Delhi without

shelter, job and a way back home — is only one among lakhs
of his peers
PRABHJOTE GILLMAR 26, 2020, 13:27 IST
 A video of a crying child migrant worker shows him stuck in the city under
threat of being beaten up by the police if he doesn’t go home — without any way to
get there.
 Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers all over the country are stranded in
urban India with no way of getting back to their villages.
 The sudden announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to implement a
21-day lock down has restricted public transportation and sealed off borders.
 Follow the comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and its
impact, and other useful resources that can help you in the fight on Business Insider
India.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to people to stay indoors for 21 days,
he was talking to people who have homes. The country however is full of people who
have no homes, no savings, and no way to stock rations.
Migrant workers stranded at the Delhi-Ghaziabad trying to head home during the
Coronavirus lock downBCCL
79
The worst affected are migrant workers who are stranded, homeless, and hungry —
who do not fear Coronavirus but starvation. One such heartbreaking story is that of a
15-year old construction worker in Delhi was seen sobbing since he doesn’t have a
way to get back home. He told NDTV that he has been roaming the streets for three
days with the police threatening to beat him up if he didn’t have a place to go.
He’s only one among hundreds of thousands of workers in the unorganised sector that
travel to urban cities looking for work. Over 90% of India’s unorganised sector are
migrant workers where no health nor social benefits exist. The wages are low and
many don’t have savings to fall back on. As public transportation is closed, going back
home is not an option either.
Migrant workers make their way home on footBCCL
80
Some workers choose to walk home.
In a travesty similar to Biblical lore, some labourers decided to go back home, on foot.
In Gujarat, over 2,000 daily wage workers chose to walk all the way home to
Rajasthan — many without food or water, according to the Indian Express. It took the
group of men, women and children 14 hours to reach Dungarpur Village, the nearest
border.
Workers walking home from Gujarat to RajasthanDeccan Herald
On being stopped by the border authorities, some were loaded onto trucks and others
had to walk another two hours to the bus station in hopes that one will take them
home. In Northern India, migrant workers from Nepal are stranded at the border as
per Aljazeera.
Workers in Ahmedabad packed up and migrating out of the city during the Coronavirus lock downBCCL
81
Help for the poor.
In Delhi, homeless shelters are overrun and migrant workers have no choice but to stay
within the city with borders sealed. Most of these workers are from remote villages,
many all the way in Bihar over 1,000 kilometers away, where walking home isn’t an
option.
Homeless migrant workers forced to sleep at railways station in Chennai during the Coroanvirus lock downBCCL
82
States like Uttar Pradesh and Kerala announced small amounts of monetary assistance
to help the vulnerable sections of society tide through the lockdown.
Migrant workers in Kerala line up for essential suppliesBCCL
However, India’s welfare programmes are far from adequate. The added stress of the
lockdown is only compounded by the limited resources. Even though the fiscal
situation is tight, experts like Raghuram Rajan and P Chidambaram recommend
putting cash in the hands of those who need it most after addressing healthcare
concerns.
83
ANNEXURE - 15
84
ANNEXURE - 16
India’s Coronavirus Lockdown Leaves Vast

Numbers Stranded and Hungry
The sudden shutdown of businesses has upended the lives of millions of migrant laborers in Indian cities. More than a dozen migrants have
died, and anger is rising.
Migrant workers at a park in New Delhi last week. The shutdown of businesses across India that employed migrants has swelled the number
of homeless people.Credit...Rebecca Conway for The New York Times
By Maria Abi-Habib and Sameer Yasir

NEW DELHI — In one of the biggest migrations in India’s modern history, hundreds of
thousands of migrant laborers have begun long journeys on foot to get home, having been
rendered homeless and jobless by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationwide lockdown to
contain the spread of the coronavirus.
With businesses shut down in cities across the country, vast numbers of migrants — many of
whom lived and ate where they worked — were suddenly without food and shelter. Soup
kitchens in Delhi, the capital, have been overwhelmed. So far, more than a dozen migrant
laborers have lost their lives in different parts of the country as they tried to return to their
home, hospital officials said.
Thousands of migrants in Delhi, including whole families, packed their pots, pans and
blankets into rucksacks, some balancing children on their shoulders as they walked along
interstate highways. Some planned to walk hundreds of miles. But as they reached the Delhi
border, many were beaten back by the police.
85
“You fear the disease, living on the streets. But I fear hunger more, not corona,” said Papu, 32,
who came to Delhi three weeks ago for work and was now trying to return to his home in
Saharanpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh, 125 miles away.
While dozens of countries across the world are under lockdown to contain the virus’s spread,
in crowded and impoverished places like India, many fear that the measures could spark social
unrest. Millions of people live in Indian slums, and staying at home for three weeks — as Mr.
Modi has ordered — is a daunting prospect in such places, where dozens of family members
often share a few rooms.
Migrant laborers have been protesting the lockdown across India. On Saturday, thousands
came out to the streets in the southern state of Kerala, saying they had not eaten in days. The
authorities urged them to disperse for their own safety, but they ignored the commands.
As of Sunday morning, just one of India’s 36 state and territorial governments, Uttar Pradesh,
had made arrangements to bring migrants home, commissioning about 1,000 buses. On
Saturday, migrants waited in lines miles long on the outskirts of Delhi to board a few buses,
and the overwhelming majority were turned away.
But by Sunday afternoon, the central government had ordered states to reverse course and seal
their borders, ordering migrants to stay where they are. The reversal added to the already
confused rollout of the lockdown, which has prompted state government actions often at odds
with the central government’s orders. The police, often confused, have resorted to violence.
India already had one of the world’s largest homeless populations, and the lockdown has
swelled its numbers exponentially, workers for nongovernmental organizations say. A 2011
government census put the number of homeless at 1.7 million, almost certainly a vast
underestimate in this country of 1.3 billion, experts say.
Mr. Modi announced the lockdown, which includes a ban on interstate travel, with just four
hours’ notice on Tuesday, leaving the enormous migrant population stranded in big cities. Jobs
lure at least 45 million people to cities from the countryside every year, according to
government estimates.
Many of those migrants are fed and housed at the shops and construction sites where they
work, and as businesses closed, hundreds of thousands — if not millions — were suddenly
without their homes and a regular source of food.
A group of 13 men walking along a Delhi highway last week, bound for their homes in Uttar
Pradesh, said they had not eaten in nearly two days. They had about $3 between them, they
said.
“This may have been a good decision for the wealthy, but not those of us with no money,” said
Deepak Kumar, a 28-year-old truck driver, referring to the lockdown.
Sirens approached in the distance, and the men ran away, worried it was the police. It turned
out to be an ambulance, and the men regrouped and set off again.
Aid workers warn that the situation could deteriorate into violence if the desperation increases
and people continue to go without food.
Soup kitchens across Delhi are unable to cope with the demand, which aid workers estimate
has tripled. Fights have been breaking out. The government has given the police no explicit
policy for dealing with stranded migrants, and many officers have lashed out.
“In the absence of a clear policy, the migrants have been left to the whims of police. And there
are instances where the police treat them inhumanely,” said Ashwin Parulkar, a senior
researcher for the Center for Policy Research in Delhi who studies India’s homeless
population.
Usually, the homeless are fed by India’s array of religious institutions: Hindu temples, Sikh
gurdwaras and mosques. But now, everything is closed, and shelters are feeling the strain.
86
“The pressure has increased drastically. People can't walk the streets, and if it remains like
this, the situation will explode,” said Nishu Tripathi, 29, a supervisor at a soup kitchen opened
by Safe Approach, a Delhi-based nongovernmental organization.
“Every time we start distributing food, we are charged by the crowd,” he said.
Safe Approach started an open-air soup kitchen in northeast Delhi last week. It now serves
8,000 people. As people lined up for food there on Thursday, police cars circled, sirens
blaring.
“Leave this place! Go inside. Separate! Separate! Maintain distance!” the police yelled
through a loudspeaker.
As a group of men and boys, some disabled and hobbling on makeshift crutches, walked along
the highway toward the soup kitchen, police officers suddenly began beating them with
bamboo sticks. “Maintain social distance!” they yelled.
A boy of about 15 was hit in the mouth, his wails exposing his blood-soaked teeth. An angry
crowd formed to console him. “Why would they do that!” screamed a man waiting for food.
“He was walking here. Why would they treat us like this!”
Mr. Tripathi, the supervisor, turned to reporters. “Go, we cannot ensure your safety,” he said.
Despite government orders to allow the transportation of essential items like food and
medicine during the lockdown, vendors complain their delivery trucks are being harassed by
the police and their stores forced to shut.
“I’ve never seen such desperation,” said Ricky Chandael, a supervisor at another shelter.
“Before, charitable people would come and donate to our shelter, but they can’t reach us
because of the lockdown. And every day, there are at least 100 new people showing up here
for food.”
As lunchtime neared and the crowd grew, Mr. Chandael, like Mr. Tripathi, advised reporters
to leave for their safety.
On Thursday, the government announced a $22.5 billion relief package to support the millions
made unemployed by the lockdown. But it is unclear how much that will help migrants and
others in India’s enormous off-the-books work force — believed to make up 80 percent of
India’s 470 million workers — who are likely to have trouble getting access to the benefits.
The aid, including cash and food handouts, is tied to registration in national labor databases,
which omit many migrant workers, or a home address, which many migrants do not have.
Mr. Modi has said that shutting down for three weeks is India’s only hope to prevent a
devastating epidemic. As of Sunday, 980 people in the country had tested positive for the
coronavirus, with 24 dead.
Supervisors at a shelter for women and children in Nizamuddin, a neighborhood in Central
Delhi, said the government had given them soap for the first time, and that they were under
orders to teach those seeking shelter about the coronavirus, and to force them to wash their
hands and take showers.
“It’s hard; they aren’t used to washing all the time,” said Rajesh Kumar, the shelter’s
supervisor.
The previous night, he said, about 70 women with dozens of children had started banging on
the gate to the shelter, begging to be let in, saying they had been beaten by the police for
sleeping on the road. But the shelter was full and Mr. Kumar had to turn them away.
Mr. Kumar said most homeless people he encountered had known nothing about the
coronavirus, and had awakened one day to find the police shooing them off the streets,
ordering them to practice social distancing — a new catchword in India, as in most of the
world.
“But where do the homeless go?” he asked.
87
ANNEXURE - 17
Amidst a Lockdown, Why Must Cops

Wield the Lathi With Such Impunity
and Callousness?
Incidents of police beating up citizens and those in essential services owe their
origins to socio-historical and psychological reasons, apart from vagueness in
government guidelines.
Police personnel punishes a rickshaw puller for allegedly flouting lockdown imposed in wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Guwahati, Friday.
Photo: PTI
There have been several reports of police highhandedness – beating with lathis and resorting to public
humiliation to enforce the lockdown – not only against common people but also those associated with
essential services. Incidents of such misbehaviour have been reported from across the country, indicating
that they reflect a problem with the fundamental character of the police in India and are neither isolated
nor region-specific.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has also listed incidents of assault against journalists from Delhi
and Hyderabad. Incidents of people on their way to hospitals or to buy essentials being lathi-charged have
been reported from several parts of Assam, Tripura, Delhi and other parts of the country.
According to media reports, several videos have surfaced in which police were forcing people to do
squats, scramble on their hands and knees as well as lie down on the ground and roll over several times in
opposite directions. In one video, a female doctor was slapped by a Khammam police official while she
was on her way for her night duty, and abused saying, “With whom are you going to sleep at this time?”
Vehicles of those caught were impounded.
In Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, people who had gone to the vegetable market, were lathicharged. The police
circle officer said that only wholesale shops could be opened. The cops, of course, were intellectually
88
incapable of understanding that even if only retailers were allowed to purchase from there, some people
had to go to the mandi—you cannot allow shops to remain open but not allow any customer to go there!
Against the backdrop of such incidents, the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was obliged to assure
people, “Have requested police officials to allow anyone who is seen delivering essential commodities
despite not having a pass or ID.” Ignorance of law is so rampant that, Telangana chief minister, K. C. Rao
threatened people with shoot-at-sight orders. Little does he know that this is plainly illegal as, in the
celebrated judgment in the case of Jayantilal Mohanlal Patel v. Eric Renison And Anr., it has been held
that police have no authority to shoot at anyone for a mere breach of the curfew order.
How vagueness in government orders added to confusion
There is an ambiguity inherent in paragraph 15 of the guidelines on the measures to be taken by the
authorities—a classic example of hurried, poor drafting of even such momentous orders. It reads, “All
enforcing authorities to note that these strict restrictions fundamentally relate to movement of people, but
not to that of essential goods.” This is clearly self-contradictory.
On one hand, the people were told to draw a Lakshman Rekha on their entry doors, that is, stay put at
home. On the other hand, paragraph 4 of the guidelines tells people that grocery shops, etc. would remain
open, and that media personnel and bank workers have also been exempted. It further says that ‘district
authorities may encourage and facilitate home delivery to minimise the movement of individuals outside
their homes.”
A policeman wields his baton at a man riding a motorbike as a punishment for breaking the lockdown rules, after India ordered a 21-day
nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai, March 25, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Francis
Mascarenhas
Two things are clear from this. The government admitted that, even as they would try for home delivery,
common people and people of the exempted category might have to go outside to buy essentials or for
their duties. Now the question is, if the police are preventing people from going to the shops, how will
they buy essentials? You may recall that people were also urged to desist from panic-buying and hoarding
of essential goods such as food and medicine.
89
I have not come across any effective government home delivery system anywhere in the country, either
by road vehicles or by drones. Thus, for the bulk of the items, people have no option but to go to shops.
Bajrangbali Hanuman ji had also done aerial delivery of only sanjivani during a crisis – Lord Ram’s
entire army had to fend for itself on the ground!
Paragraph 15 has not given any clear direction to the cops as to how they have to regulate the movement
of the people and determine their purpose of movement. If someone is stopped with a bag of groceries or
vegetables, it can be presumed that he went to purchase them – what proof of purpose for his ‘outing’
could he furnish if he were stopped while going for purchasing?
In a residential colony of 300 houses, almost every household will need something every day. Even if
they depute just one person once a day, 300 people will have to venture out to shop in the neighbourhood.
Under what authority are the cops shooing them away, beating them up or seizing their vehicles? Bikes or
even cars may be required—after all, how many people are strong enough to carry 20 kg flour on their
shoulders for even half a km? Moreover, it is ridiculous to presume that all shops are located in places
where chalk-mark circles one meter apart could be drawn for people to maintain ‘social distancing’. Most
shops do not have any place in front of them for even five people to stand a meter apart from each other!
Standard excuses are no excuses
When questioned, police officers have a standard excuse that the presence of limited manpower means a
strain on those performing their duty. This is a clichéd argument. All over the world, agencies of the state
have to manage with the resources available. No nation can afford to recruit half of its population in the
police to serve the other half. The stress of work is no excuse for committing atrocities.
In this video grab provided on Thursday, March 26, 2020, a group of young men are made to hop on the road by policemen for violating
prohibitory orders during the nationwide lockdown, in Budaun. Photo: PTI
An argument that many people want to be out on the streets for fun is not acceptable. With the kind of
scaremongering about the disease we have, I do not think that any man in his right mind would run the
risk of contracting the disease just for fun. Some other police officers seem to have realised this and
have appealed for exhibiting compassion, selfless service, empathy, tolerance, etc. Well, neither words
nor pious desires cost anything!
The rot runs deep
90
The current spate of abusive behaviour by the police is only an aggravated form of their ‘routine’
behaviour in normal times. It gets aggravated during such times because; first, there is little
accountability during crises. The supervisory system is occupied handling more serious issues, and has
little time to spare for such complaints. Second, the cops know that, having have had a very long history
of subjection, subordination and consequent servility, a large number of Indians have developed
submissive personalities. As a result, they do regard imperious, overbearing behaviour of state officials as
a sign of ‘good or strict administration’.
The habit of cops to swing their lathis first and ask questions later is a reflection of some systemic
problems. Is this overenthusiasm? No, it is plain and simple abuse of authority. Those who do not know
the police intimately, think that to the Indian police, every situation can be solved with a bit of violence .
No, it is not a belief system; abusing power has been their socio-historical as well as a psychological
prime mover. When it comes to abusing power, cops do not think—they behave like zombies!
Socio-historical reasons for the police’s highhanded behaviour
Historically, in India, the state existed for the ruler, not for the ruled. All the agencies of the state and
particularly the armed components, that is, the army and the police, existed essentially to repress their
own people than to protect them from some external threat or depredations of criminals. This bred a very
characteristic pattern of behaviour in them; uncontrolled, impertinent, aggressive, rude, abusive, arrogant,
barbarous, and brutish. The very traits characterize the behaviour of the police of even today—a perfect
example of historical continuity.
A police officer wields his baton against a man as a punishment for breaking the lockdown rules after India ordered a 21-day nationwide
lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New Delhi, March 25, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi
The word ‘uddanda’, in Sanskrit, is composed of two words, ‘ud’ and ‘danda’, that is, ‘one who has his
stick (danda) raised-up’. Now, who carried his ‘danda’ raised-up? The cops carried their lathi/stick
(danda) raised-up. They were asked to do so because in ancient India, most people habitually carried
some sort of stick—to drive away aggressive dogs, to fight with each other, to kill snakes, to ford
rivulets, to pluck fruits from trees, and a thousand other reasons.
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Since in that era, the cops did not wear any uniform, they were asked to carry their lathis raised-up for
easy identification. Since the cops used to be uncontrolled, impertinent, aggressive, rude, abusive,
arrogant, barbarous, and brutish, and continued to remain so for centuries, gradually the word ‘ uddanda’
itself came to acquire the meaning of these very behavioural traits!
Psychological reasons for cops abusing the power vested in them
There are several psychological reasons also for the highhanded behaviour of cops. One of the anxieties
that perpetually consume, especially the lower-level cops relates to the lack of social prestige associated
with the job, and the fact that they have to deal with criminals and the scum of the society—leading to a
‘guilt’ that the ‘filth’ somehow rubs off onto them. This breeds an inferiority complex.
A realisation that by abusing power, they can make almost anybody, irrespective of his achievements in
life, grovel before them assuages their inferiority complex. This is precisely what the great Austrian
psychotherapist Alfred Adler had propounded in his theories of ‘individual psychology’, after
incorporating Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the ‘will to power’. Adler held that the main motives of
human thought and behaviour are individual man’s striving for superiority and power, partly in
compensation for his feeling of inferiority.
Psychologist Rachel Gillet explains that power inevitably changes people—sometimes, it can get
downright ugly. Columbia University professor Heidi Grant Halvorson in her book No One Understands
You And What To Do About It says that when in a position of power, people more likely to focus on the
potential payoff than risky behaviour or the potential dangers. Rachel Gillet cites a Berkeley study in
which they found that drivers of high-status cars like Mercedes and BMWs cut off other drivers 30% of
the time, compared to only 7% for the lowest-status cars. They also failed to yield to pedestrians almost
half the time. Speaking of the dehumanising effect of power, Halvorson says that it is not so much that
powerful people think they are better than you are as it is that they simply do not think about you at all!
A policeman removes air from the tyre of a labourer’s cart carrying vegetables, to dissuade people from crowding outside a market during
a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the old quarters of Delhi, India, March 26,
2020. Photo: Reuters/Anushree Fadnavis
92
For cops, controlling other people’s lives and behaviour becomes their idee fixe. Starting from ‘control
freaks’, they rapidly transition to what is known as ‘abusive power and control’ in which they gain and
maintain power and control over people in order to subject them to psychological, physical, sexual, or
financial abuse. This explains extortion, torture, fake encounters and rapes in police custody. Nothing
gives a high better than the power of life and death over others, particularly when you have the backing
of the entire system for it.
How has police leadership failed?
No concern has been expressed by the police leadership over this except some lip service by way of
statements to look into the complaints. They are not bothered because they want the status quo to be
maintained. The present system allows them to wield unbridled power over the people the way their
predecessors have wielded since centuries. A colonial system, which was devised to keep a potentially
untrustworthy population under control, enables the servants of the system to wield enormous powers.
That is how, their basic philosophy has become, “Why bother to change something if you can pass your
time comfortably in it.”
Ramifications and repercussions of police highhandedness
Going about such a tremendously gigantic task as the lockdown in such a cavalier manner with such little
planning is a painfully sad commentary on the way the government and administration are functioning in
the country—as if someone tried to launch the Saturn-V rocket from his backyard! In the short-term,
police misbehaviour will be counterproductive to the lockdown drive as a population desperate for
essentials will certainly find innovative ways of bypassing the police checks. There may be violence,
affray or minor rioting too—somebody, whose self-respect is deeply hurt, might even kill them. Police
misbehaviour has long-term adverse effects too. Moreover, it makes the people lose any modicum of
respect for this important arm of the state and thus engenders potential lawlessness in their minds.
N.C. Asthana, a retired IPS officer, has been DGP Kerala and a long-time ADG CRPF and BSF. Of his
46 books, two books – Leadership Failure in Police and Khaki mein ye Darinde – analyse police
behaviour.
93
ANNEXURE - 18

March 23, 2020

94
virus.
95
was declared.
96
97
ANNEXURE - 19
National Disaster Management Advisory Committee(NDMAC)
The National Disaster Management Advisory Committee has been formed in 19,
November 2009. The committee Structure is given below.
(i) Dr. M. A Kashem, Former DG, WARPO (a person nominated by the Chairman
Chair NDMC)
(ii) Member of the Parliament, Patuakhali 2 Member
(iii) Member of the Parliament, Borguna 1 ,,
(iv) Member of the Parliament, Coxsbazar 4 ”
(v) Member of the Parliament, Sunamgonj 5 ”
(vi) Member of the Parliament, Noakhali 5 ”
(vii) Member of the Parliament, Rajshahi 2 ”
(viii) Member of the Parliament, Moulavibazar 1 ”
(ix) Member of the Parliament, Dhaka 6 ”
(x) Chairman, RAJUK ”
(xi) Chairman, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council ”
(xii) Chairman/Head, Barind Multipurpose Development Authority ”
(xiii) Director General, River Research Institute, Faridpur ”
(xiv) Joint Secretary (Disaster Management), DM&RD, MoFDM ”
(xv) Joint Secretary, Ministry of Chittagong Hill tracts Affairs ”
(xvi) Director General, Department of Environment ”
(xvii) Chief Engineer, PWD ,,
(xviii) Director General, Geological Survey of Bangladesh ”
(xix) Chief Engineer, DPHE ”
(xx) Director General, WDB ”
(xxi) Chief Conservator of Forests, Forests Department ”
(xxii) Director, Armed Forces Division ”
(xxiii) Director, BMD ”
(xxiv) Representative, BUET
(xxv) Representative University of Dhaka ”
(xxvi) Representative, University of Chittagong ”
(xxvii) Representative, Khulna University ”
(xxviii) Representative, SUST ”
(xxix) Country Director, CARE ”
(xxx) Representative, BRAC ”
(xxxi) Resident Coordinator, UN ”
(xxxii) Country Director World Bank ”
(xxxiii) Water Resource Expert- Dr. Ainun Nishat ”
(xxxiv) Climate expert: Mr. Hamidizzaman Khan Chowdhury ”
(xxxv) Earthquake Expert: Professor, Jamilur Reza Chowdhury ”
(xxxvi) Physical Structure Expert: Prof. Dr. Mahbub-ul-Nabi, BUET ”
(xxxvii) Education: Professor Nazrul Islam, Chairman UGC ”
(xxxviii) Disatser Management Expert: Dr. Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed ”
(xxxix) Chairman, Bangladesh Red Crescent Society ”
(xxxx) President, FBCCI ”
(xxxxi) President, Institute of Engineer (IEB) ”
(xxxxii) Chairman, Insurance Company Association ”
(xxxxiii) Chairman, Krishi Bank ”
(xxxxiv Chairman, Grameen Bank ”
(xxxxv) Director General, Directorate of Relief and Rehabilitation ”
(xxxxvi) Director General, Fire Service and Civil Defence Directorate ,,
(xxxxvii) Director General, Disaster Management Bureau Member
Secretary
2.2.3.1 Meeting: Twice a year, the Chairman may call additional meetings, if needed.
98
2.2.3.2 Sub-Committee: Sub committees may be formed for cyclone warning, flood
forecasts, earthquake risks, and participation by the people. Experts may be co-opted in the
respective sub committees after formation and selection of the Chairman.
2.2.3.3 General Responsibilities:
2.2.3.3.1 Advise NDMC, IMDMCC, MoFDM and DMB on technical matters and socio-
economic aspects of Disaster Risk Reduction and emergency response management.
2.2.3.3.2 Alert the Committee members about the risk of disaster and mitigation
possibilities and encourage them in respect of workshop, training and research.
2.2.3.3.3 Create a forum for discussion by experts on the risk of disaster, opening
opportunities for cooperation towards solution of problems relating to disaster
management.
2.2.3.3.4 Recommend release of funds for special project works and also for introduction
of special emergency methods or empowerment, if needed.
2.2.3.3.5 Recommend solution of problems identified by the DMB or any other
agency/person.
2.2.3.3.6 Propose long term recovery plans.
2.2.3.3.7 Hold post-mortem or prepare final evaluation on programmes undertaken to meet
the disaster and
2.2.3.3.8 Submit a report with recommendations to the NDMC.
99

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TEAM CODE- PIL-19

BEFORE THE HON’BLE SUPREME COURT OF GOTHAM

CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

WRIT PETTTTON [CIVIL NO. ___ OF 2020]

INTRA-INSTITUTE PIL COMPETETION, 2020

PIL AGAINST THE GOVT. FOR THE UNFULFILLMENT OF ITS DUTIES

(CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION) WRIT PETTTTON

(CIVIL) NO. ____ OF 2020

(PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION)

IN THE MATTER OF:

l. SANITIZE AND STAY HYGIENIC (SASH) NGO … PETITIONER

A-69 WAYNE MANOR,

NEAR ARKHUM ASYLUM,

THROUGH ITS SECRETARY

MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

NORTH BLOCK, CENTRAL SECRETARIAT

NEW DELHI-11OOO1 … RESPONDENT No. 1

THROUGH ITS SECRETARY

MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

NEW DELHI-11OOO1 … RESPONDENT No. 2

THE HON’BLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA

AND HIS LORDSHIP’S COMPANION JUDGES OF

THE HON’BLE SUPREME COURT OF GOTHAM

THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:

ARRAY OF THE PARTIES:

FOR THIS ACT OF KINDNESS THE PETITIONER

SHALL DUTY BOUND FOREVER PRAY

DRAWN BY: PETITITIONER

(COUNSEL FOR THE PETITIONER)

(CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION)

WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO. _ OF 2O2O

In the matter of:

In India’s fight against coronavirus, one arm

Govt’s faulty assurances

INDIAN COUNCIL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH RESEARCH

Revised Strategy of COVID19 testing in India (Version 3, dated 20/03/2020)

To contain the spread of infection of COVID19.

Current testing strategy:

ii. All symptomatic contacts of laboratory confirmed cases.

iii.All symptomatic health care workers.

Can India Keep up With COVID-19?

March 23, 2020

Insufficient Testing May Mask the True Number of Cases

Lack of Information and Poor Facilities

SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) Testing: Status Update 7 April 2020 09:00 PM IST

Can India Keep up With COVID-19?

March 23, 2020

Insufficient Testing May Mask the True Number of Cases

Lack of Information and Poor Facilities

Water, sanitation, hygiene and waste

1. Introduction and background

1.1 COVID-19 transmission

1.3 Keeping water supplies safe

1.4 Safely managing wastewater and faecal waste

2. WASH in health care settings

2.1 Hand hygiene practices

2.2 Sanitation and plumbing

2.3 Toilets and the handling of faeces

2.5 Cleaning practices

2.7 Safe management of health care waste

3. Considerations for WASH practices in homes and communities