Governments have a duty to ensure that the most vulnerable classes, economically and socially, including the elderly, have access to essential articles including medicines, close to where they live. It should not be difficult to provide to them a package of staples to last a week using civil supplies departments, civic workers, and non-governmental organisations. Considering that about 37% of households depend on casual labour as their major source of income for rural and urban India, and nearly 55% have tenuous regular employment, it is essential for governments to ensure that they get subsistence wages for as long as restrictions last. Some states have already moved in that direction. Funds transfers during the containment phase of the pandemic, followed by a stimulus to sustain employment, are necessary. But a bigger challenge stares India in the face: can it get a universally accessible testing system in place to prevent transmission when the lockdown is lifted? China, South Korea and Singapore, as WHO points out, adopted a strict shutdown, but used the breather to get a grip on infections by testing at the population level. This is the hard work that lies ahead, and it will test the mettle of India’s national and state governments.
Q. With regards to the situation discussed in the passage, the government has to?
Governments have a duty to ensure that the most vulnerable classes, economically and socially, including the elderly, have access to essential articles including medicines, close to where they live. It should not be difficult to provide to them a package of staples to last a week using civil supplies departments, civic workers, and non-governmental organisations. Considering that about 37% of households depend on casual labour as their major source of income for rural and urban India, and nearly 55% have tenuous regular employment, it is essential for governments to ensure that they get subsistence wages for as long as restrictions last. Some states have already moved in that direction. Funds transfers during the containment phase of the pandemic, followed by a stimulus to sustain employment, are necessary. But a bigger challenge stares India in the face: can it get a universally accessible testing system in place to prevent transmission when the lockdown is lifted? China, South Korea and Singapore, as WHO points out, adopted a strict shutdown, but used the breather to get a grip on infections by testing at the population level. This is the hard work that lies ahead, and it will test the mettle of India’s national and state governments.
Q. With regards to the situation discussed in the passage, the government has to?
The correct option is D All of the above
All points are valid as per the passage.
All points are valid as per the passage.
