One minute read. Written by Samya Singh – a grade 9 student.

On the 24th of March, Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi, announced a 21-day lockdown for all of the 1.3 billion people of the country in order to stop the spread of the Novel Coronavirus.

What does this mean? 

Every state, district, village in India has been placed under lockdown from 25th March 2020. People are completely forbidden from stepping outside their homes for reasons other than acquiring essential services like food and water. 

Here are the details of this lockdown: 

• Government offices, their subordinate offices and public corporations have been shut down. A few exceptions include the defence department, central armed police forces, power generation and disaster management. 
• Even state and union territory governments have shut down their offices except for home guards, civil defence, fire and emergency services, prisons and water and sanitation Municipal bodies.
• Hospitals and all related medical offices, such as dispensaries, chemist and medical equipment shops, laboratories, clinics, nursing homes, ambulances will continue to remain functional. 
• Shops, including ration shops, dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder will remain open as they come under essential services. 
• All transport services air, rail, roadways will remain suspended.
• All educational, training, research, coaching institutions etc. shall remain closed.
• All places of worship shall be closed to the public. No religious congregations will be permitted, without any exception.
• All social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural, religious functions/ gatherings shall be barred.

What else did Modi say in his speech? 

The Prime Minister made several announcements. He urged everyone to stay at home and draw a ‘lakshman rekha’ outside their homes, not allowing anyone to enter. As explained earlier, he announced the 21 day lockdown for the nation and explained its significance. He also announced a Rs 15,000 crore stimulus to help fight this dangerous virus. He appealed to all citizens to avoid believing fake news or rumours about the virus and emphasised on the importance of social distancing. In conclusion, he thanked the medical workers for their undying effort and sacrifice. 

Here’s a link to his full speech

Written by Samya Singh
Samya is 14-years old. She is an avid reader and also a pianist.