Policy Response to Pandemic

Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 has created humungous governance challenges for public institutions. The Governments have adopted various approaches to address the hardship created due to the pandemic ranging from imposing a curfew-styled lockdown, putting limited curbs on economic activities and people’s movement, and suggesting people COVID-19-appropriate behaviour. The relevant agencies and the ministries in the Government of India issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) from time to time. Based on the severity of the situation and local conditions, the state Governments were given the freedom to modify these SOPs. While the Governments kept changing the SOPs during the various phases of lockdown and unlock, what was lacking is a consistent policy response from the central and state Governments, which would have matched with adverse impacts created by the pandemic. In this chapter, we intend to analyse the variations in the policy response suggested by the central and state Governments. We would also make an effort to see if a collaborative framework was chalked out by the central and state Governments, facilitating inter-departmental coordination while implementing the complex set of new norms.