Lessons from India's Experience Managing the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The Indian government's official narrative on its response to the COVID-19 pandemic paints a picture of commendable crisis management and effective governance, lauded globally. This narrative ignores the flawed dimensions of the government’s coping strategies, which resulted in severe hardships for millions of Indians and a massive undercounting of COVID-19-related deaths. By March 2022, the government credited a fivefold strategy of test-track-treat-vaccinate and COVID-appropriate behavioural changes, facilitated by a “whole-of-government” and “whole-of-society” approach for its successful response to managing this “once-in-a-century” public health crisis. While aspects of these strategies were perhaps successful at later stages, the government’s delayed response disproportionately affected vulnerable populations, including migrant workers, who faced immense challenges due to the sudden lockdown and lack of institutional support to return to their native villages. The economic impact on the country was immense. Except for agriculture, there was a significant downturn in economic activities despite efforts from the government to create special fiscal packages to revive the economy. Hubris and triumphalism after the first wave of COVID-19 resulted in inaction with respect to preparations for the second wave, with devastating consequences. Based on an extensive desk review and the authors’ real-time observations, this article critically analyses the Indian government’s COVID-19 response strategy to identify successes and failures in managing the pandemic. It highlights the ground realities of the fivefold strategy, such as early inaction, ignoring science, the unplanned lockdown that triggered one of independent India’s worst humanitarian crises, and the ad hoc rollout of the world’s largest vaccination drive. The article draws lessons to inform policy recommendations for future pandemic preparedness and resilience.