Kapil’s Khichadi in Asian Voice dated 21-27 March 2020 clearly depicts human behaviour during panic period. He has rightly mentioned that people have been buying as if the end of the world is coming.
It is really difficult to understand the behaviour of people especially “mob psychology” during the period of crisis. Print and visual media have also shown empty shelves in the supermarket most of the time. The head of BRC (British Retail Consortium) Helen Dickinson mentioned on the BBC that we have enough stock in the country to support the requirement of our people, it is just a matter of transporting goods at appropriate place at the right time.
General tendency of common people is to believe, what they see instead of what they listen. If we have stock, why cannot you show pictures of stocks, warehouses, people picking the stock and sending through lorries? I personally feel the government should immediately set up a task force of people having grass root knowledge of supply chain to mitigate the situation before imminent threat of lock-down of the country. The present situation requires “micro-management” and time to time update about stock situation at various stock points with major retailers or arrival at ports.
The government might have complete picture but to stop people stock piling of essential things, drastic measures are required. Verbal assurance is not enough because people have various sources like social media, word of mouth etc to get information about stock level situation at various place. People will stop panic buying only when they see that every day new stock is arriving than the requirement.
Hitesh Hingu
London
