Although I am getting paid every month still I don’t support lockdown. It’s easy to sit at our cosy air-conditioned rooms and give lectures for one more lockdown but do you know it afflicts huge population who are living from hand to mouth.

Lockdown may save the elites but who will feed the families of daily wagers, roadside vendors and labourers. They don’t have bank balances to make their ends meet.

I am not undermining the severity of Coronavirus. Corona is dangerous but so is lockdown. It’s better we all should die through Covid19 than kill only the poverty-stricken people by shutting their small earning undertakings.

Let people make a firm pledge to keep physical distancing, use sanitizers, wear face masks and follow other health advisories to mitigate the impact of virus but don’t impose lockdown again. It will only shoot up crimes, suicides, depression and anxiety in our society.

There are thousands in our valley who do menial jobs with a hope to earn a little amount to feed their families. We should become their hope not destroyer of their livelihood.

I humbly request the administration to look for other ways to halt the multiplication of virus but don’t impose lockdown again. Lockdown will not minimize our sufferings but will only aggravate it.

By Javeed Ali

The author is a freelance writer and can be reached at javeedaliofkashmir@gmail.com