How should the Govt Help the Traders in Lockdown?

As the 2nd Corona wave is subsiding, traders bodies are agitating and asking the government to completely open the markets as they are losing money. This is exactly what had happened in 2020. They forced the govt to reopen the markets which partially contributed to the rise in Corona cases again. This time, studies have forecast that a third wave of Corona is likely to be as destructive as the 2nd wave, if the government doesn't take precautions and doesn't make arrangements for vaccination for all.

Having gone through the 2nd wave of Corona, it would be foolhardy to completely open the markets while no proper arrangements have been yet made to vaccinate the entire population of India.

To make matters worse, there are many educated, semi-educated and uneducated people who think that vaccination is useless and even harmful - despite all warnings from the medical community that vaccination is the only way to provide safeguard from Corona and despite the developed countries race to vaccinate all their population.

To complicate the situation, IT traders keep on agitating against the online business format, under the cover of equal opportunity to all. This is somewhat like of the oxcart pullers argue that they are being less opportunity than the automotive drivers, or if paper-notebook manufacturers argue that they are being given less opportunity than the laptop sellers.

It's an irony that the tech-traders don't want to walk in synch with the advancing technologies and want to drive an advanced technology out of the market.

In the present circumstances following is what the government should do -

• Tell the traders, especially the tech-traders, that they should follow the digital India vision of the government and move online - either become sellers on E-commerce platforms, join an E-store platform such as Indiamart or the traders' associations' E-stores, or form their own platform and drive traffic to their online profiles
• Form a special digital assistance cell to help the traders go online and to drive traffic to their online platforms
• Give them financial assistance to go online
• Not open the market till enough vaccines are procured for the entire population of India
• Procure sufficient vaccines for all and make it mandatory for all to get themselves vaccinated with both doses

Reopening the market without procuring enough vaccines for all will only complicate the Corona 3rd wave. The government needs to look into this seriously.

Read more from Dr Archana Verma here.