What are the challenges of battling coronavirus in India?
Some 1.3 billion people in India are entering the second week of the largest lockdown the world has ever seen.
It has been a week since India began the world’s biggest lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.
The country has around 1,600 infections so far, but scientists fear the number could be much higher because of low testing rates.
Health workers in New Delhi are trying to track down at least 2,000 people who stayed at the headquarters of a Muslim group, after seven people died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s shutdown order caught many by surprise. Millions of migrant workers are struggling to return to their home villages.
And self-isolation is not an option for millions who live in cramped spaces with poor sanitation.
So what can be done to lessen the impact?
Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom
Guests:
Barkha Dutt – Television journalist and newspaper columnist
Chandra Bhushan – Chief executive of the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology
Meenakshi Ganguly – South Asia director at Human Rights Watch