The biggest and strictest lockdown in the world — that is what India experienced from the midnight hour that bridged 24-25 March 2020. A hint thrown on 22 March, through a daytime janata curfew, did not fully prepare the nation for the total lockdown imposed with a four-hour notice.
The social consequences of that sudden shutdown have been long debated, due to the many tragic pictures — of suffering migrant families struggling to trek back home from urban areas which no longer offered them shelter or income. At the end of an eventful year, it is the continuing public health challenge of a pandemic that refuses to fade away that still dominates our discourse, and calls for a review of where we did well and where we faltered.