Abstract

In the post COVID world lockdowns have emerged as a crucial measure to curb the intensity of the spread, while they’re no panacea for the pandemic when implement efficiently they have been successful in reducing the caseloads, thus, safeguarding the health infrastructure from getting overwhelmed. But their benefits come at manifold social, economic and human cost, this paper analyses the social ramifications these lockdowns on the most vulnerable sections of the society through the study of data and observations pertaining to the hardships faced by masses in the nationwide lockdown imposed to curtail the spread of virus in 2020. The observations made reflect the mid and long-term implications of consequential mass unemployment, compromised access to maternal health care, domestic violence and education while pointing out the policy limitations. When with surge in infections states are resorting back to reinstatement of lockdown it’s imperative to learn from the mistakes of past; based on the observations made in the study the paper presents a set of constructive suggestions to mitigate the consequential negative implications during these reinstatements.

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