No Virus on Me: The Indian Ways of Managing the COVID-19 Pandemic: Marine to Mountain

Abstract

The case is about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and India’s ‘midstream’ social marketing strategies and other strategic approaches to battle the notorious virus, the first known case of which was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The art and science of social marketing were exploited to promote a healthy lifestyle as a precautionary measure against COVID-19 infection through non-pharmaceutical interventions. Social marketing campaigns promoting healthy behaviour, improving psychological health and ensuring mass well-being were implemented to manage the huge Indian population in the metro cities as well as in the remotest communities in villages during the pandemic. The case study discusses the health intervention and promotion strategies and other preparedness adopted by various stakeholders in India. The case study also discusses the history and experience of severe past health threats in India and what those experiences contributed to India’s preparedness. The crisis worsened when the citizens could not cope with psychological and economic problems; a section of the population disobeyed the government guidelines. The government faced capacity and resource constraints. The case study ends with a dilemma on whether to continue with the lockdown efforts or ease restrictions. The government needs to decide on strategies to ensure the well-being of its citizens and ways to manage citizens and businesses of all forms. The consequence of the decision had huge economic, health as well as governance implications. The case study will provide practitioners with reference to the potential of social marketing and other crisis management strategies to address a complex problem featured with aleatory as well as epistemic uncertainty. The case study is timely and may serve as a reference to the rest of the world as an example to deal with similar problems at an industrial scale.