While vaccinations are great, wearing masks should, like in Japan and some Southeast Asian countries, should be happily mandatory. Elections in three northeastern states are due in a matter of months, to be soon followed by the Karnataka polls. Hopefully, election managers are not going to be again confronted with the dilemma of navigating between Covid safety and the need for physical campaigning this time.
Informed behaviour change will remain the more real option than a penalty-based enforcement. Although masks becoming mandatory at some stage in certain specifics and states cannot be ruled out. There is an emphasis on public awareness campaign for reinforcement of Covid appropriate behaviour this time. Precautions have been made among elderly and vulnerable groups and early boosters for them can be a special focus of an integrated campaign.
One can’t help but recall the efficacy of behaviour change campaigns in Swachh Bharat Mission that brought millions of open defecators inside the walls of safe sanitation, and effected a distinctly higher sense of cleanliness among the general population. The mission is currently seeking to cope with the task of sustaining the newly accrued sanitation culture. Similarly, in guarding the country against any new surge, agencies and communities have to cement the masking habits that evolved in the difficult years of 2020 and 2021, then under duress.
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