Hard to cope up with social distancing, say ‘Red Zone’ residents
Pulwama/Shopian: In an attempt to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, the government has imposed restrictions across the entire Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, schools are shut, religious services have been suspended, sporting and tourism events postponed and all business activities stopped in order to contain the spread of the deadly covid-19.
Pulwama and Shopian in south Kashmir have witnessed 9 positive cases of covid-19 while as there so far no case of covid-19 infection has surfaced in Anantnag and Kulgam districts.
After 9 cases of covid-19, around one dozen villages have been declared as red zones in Pulwama and Shopian districts including Khaigam, Sangervani, Abhama, Gudoora, Parigam, Pingelan and Chandgam in Pulwama district and Sedow, Ramnagri and Bemnipora in Shopian district in order to prevent the spread of covid-19
Locals from Sangervani Pulwama a remote village of district said that their life has completely changed since the village was declared as Red zone.
“We are confined to our houses and have been asked to avoid visiting our neighbors as well,” said a local.
“We have been asked to be in Home quarantine and not to come out of houses so as to avoid the spread of coronavirus,” said another local, Javiad Ahmad.
“Nobody is allowed to come to the village and no one is allowed to leave the village,” he said, adding that most families here are poor and have been confronting a host of problems since then.
“Most of the persons here are daily wagers but due to the lockdown there are many families who have nothing to eat,” he said, adding that as our movement has been restricted, daily wagers aren’t earning anything.
“In case of any emergency, the district administration has provided us some numbers to call and they too are doing their bit. Besides, some locals are also helping the poor and the needy here,” he said.
For a remote place like Sangervani it is hard to believe in a concept called social distancing.
“We have been taking all precautions in order to avoid the spread of covid-19 as we stopped to assemble, stopped shaking hands and meeting unnecessarily even with neighbours,” said Mohammad Shafiq, another resident.
Meanwhile, in another Red zone village Chandgam, the locals too have accepted the new norm of staying home.
Some locals who we talked on phone said that they have restricted their movement to their lawns and people generally are taking all precautionary measures to avoid the spread of covid-19.
Locals from Gudoora, another Red zone village said that they have been carrying out their routine works as usual as there are no restrictions from last few days.
“Lockdown is still in place but most of our routine activities have resumed,” said Bashir Ahmad, a local farmer.
