Moti Banugar, Gujarat

In the wake of rising COVID19 cases across the country, the central and the state governments are coming up with measures to curb its spread. Several states have announced night curfew whereas some have imposed partial lockdown.

But a bunch of villages in Gujarat, which has registered 5,469 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, are not waiting for an official communication and have ‘self-imposed’ the lockdown. These ‘self-lockdown’ villages are in Anand, Jamnagar and Dwarka districts of the state. The decision to impose the lockdown was arrived at after discussing the prevailing COVID19 situation with all the resident villagers. 

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The rising death toll and the number of cases in the state has impacted people’s awareness about the enormity of the crisis. The state reported its highest daily number of COVID19 cases on April 11 as it added  5,469 fresh cases. Also, 54 fatalities were reported across Gujarat which took the total case count to 346,749 and death toll to 4,813.

Changa village in Anand district’s Petlad town was one of the first villages that were reported to have launched such a lockdown to contain the spread of the COVID19 infection. 

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“Due to the rising cases of COVID19, we decided to follow lockdown in the village. This was a collective decision of the entire village and everybody here abides by the rules. Lockdown here began on April 2 and will last till April 13,” Mahendra Baraiya, pradhan (head) of Changa village, told Gaon Connection.

Similarly in the Dwarka district’s Kalyan town, six villages have declared lockdown. These include Nandada, Rawal, Bhogat, Harshad Gandhi, Devaliya, and Kalyanpur. These villages have declared lockdowns from April 4 to April 15 although there are no cases of COVID19 in the villages but local people insist on following lockdown rules as a precautionary measure. 

Under the rules that are agreed upon by the village populations in the self-lockdown villages, non-essential movement of the residents is not allowed from 1 pm to 7 am, the next morning. 

But not all villages are declaring lockdowns merely as a preventive measure. Some have reported COVID-19 cases.

Situated at a distance of 20 kms from Jamnagar, Moti Banugar village has a population of around 5,000 persons. There were 25 confirmed cases of COVID19 before April 2, informed the village head. 

“We decided to declare lockdown in the village after 25 persons were reported to be COVID19 positive. People supported the initiative and we decided to impose the collective lockdown from April 2 to April 13. Essential services are allowed two hours a day in the evening,” Kiran Bhensdadia, gram pradhan (village head) of Moti Banugar village told Gaon Connection.

“The result is that 20 out of 25 people have tested negative for corona and no new infections have been reported,” she added. 

During these self-imposed lockdowns, villagers are made aware of the need to maintain physical distancing, wearing masks and washing their hands frequently.

In many villages fines are imposed as well. The amount is collected by the gram panchayat (village council) and it also raises awareness drives by making public announcements about precautions on the loudspeakers.