direct cash transfers, free cereal, and cooking gas for three months. it also provided insurance coverage for medical personnel. on 27 march, the reserve bank of india announced a slew of measures to help mitigate the economic impacts of the lockdown. prior to the announcement of the nationwide lockdown, on 22 march, the government had announced that the indian railways would suspend passenger operations through 31 march. the national rail network has maintained its freight operations during the lockdown, to transport essential goods. on 29 march, the indian railways announced that it would start services for special parcel trains to transport essential goods, in addition to the regular freight service. the national rail operator also announced plans to convert coaches into isolation wards for patients with covid-19. this has been described as the first time in 167 years that india's rail network had been suspended, although there was also a strike in 1974. lamp lighting observed on 5 april 2020 during lockdown on 5 april, citizens all over india cheered and showed solidarity with the health workers, police, and all those fighting the disease by switching off the electric lights at home for 9 minutes from 9:00 p.m. to 9:09 p.m. and observed lighting diya, candle; and flashing torchlight and mobile flashlight. as the end of the initial lockdown period came near, many state governments expressed their decision to extend it until the end of april. among them were odisha, punjab, maharashtra, karnataka with some relaxations, west bengal and telangana. towards the end of the initial period, the rate of growth of covid infections in india had significantly slowed, from a rate of doubling every three days before the lockdown to one of doubling every eight days on 18 april. phase 2 (15 april – 3 may) on 14 april, pm modi extended the nationwide lockdown until 5 may, with a conditional relaxation promised after 20 april for the regions where the spread had been contained by then. he said that every town, every police station area and every state would be carefully evaluated to see if it had contained the spread. the areas that were able to do so would be released from the lockdown on 20 april. if any new cases emerged in those areas, the lockdown could be reimposed. on 16 april, lockdown areas were classified as "red zone", indicating the presence of infection hotspots, "orange zone" indicating some infection, and "green zone" with no infections. the government also announced certain relaxations from 20 april, allowing agricultural businesses, including dairy, aquaculture, and plantations, as well as shops selling farming supplies, to open. public works programmes were also allowed to reopen with instructions to maintain social distancing. cargo vehicles, including trucks, trains, and planes, would run. banks and government centres distributing benefits would open as well. on 25 april, small retail shops were allowed to open with half the staff. again social distancing norms were to be followed. on 29 april, the ministry of home affairs issued guidelines for the states to allow inter-state movement of the stranded persons. states have been asked to designate nodal authorities and form protocols to receive and send such persons. states have also been asked to screen the people, quarantine them, and do periodic health checkups. phase 3 (4–17 may) on 1 may, the ministry of home affairs (mha) and the government of india (goi) further extended the lockdown period to two weeks beyond 4 may, with some relaxations. the country has been split into 3 zones: red zones (130 districts), orange zones (284 districts), and green zones (320 districts). red zones are those with high coronavirus cases and a high doubling rate, orange zones are those with comparatively fewer cases than red zone and green zones are those without any cases in the past 21 days. normal movement is permitted in green zones with buses limited to 50 percent capacity. orange zones would allow only private and hired vehicles but no public transportation. the red zones would remain under lockdown. the zone classification would be revised once a week. phase 4 (18–31 may) on 17 may, the national disaster management authority (ndma) and the ministry of home affairs (mha) extended the lockdown for a period of two weeks beyond 18 may, with additional relaxations. unlike the previous extensions, states were given a larger say in the demarcation of green, orange, and red zones and the implementation roadmap. red zones were further divided into containment and buffer zones. the local bodies were given the authority to demarcate containment and buffer zones. unlock 1.0 (1–30 june) the mha issued fresh guidelines for june, stating that the phases of reopening would "have an economic focus". lockdown restrictions were only to be imposed in containment zones, while activities were permitted in other zones in a phased manner. this first phase of reopening was termed "unlock 1.0" and permitted shopping malls, religious places, hotels, and restaurants to reopen from 8 june. large gatherings were still banned, but there were no restrictions on interstate travel. night curfews were in effect from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. in all areas and state governments were allowed to impose suitable restrictions on all activities. in future phases of reopening, further activities are to be permitted. in phase ii, all educational institutions are scheduled to reopen in july, pending consultations with state governments. in phase iii, easing of restrictions on international air travel, operation of metros, and recreational activities (swimming pools, gymnasiums, theatres, entertainment parks, bars, auditoriums, and assembly halls) would be decided upon in august. unlock 2.0 (1–31 july) phase ii of unlock began on 1 july under the guidelines and instructions of the mha and the ndma. lockdown measures were only imposed in containment zones. in all other areas, most activities were permitted. night curfews were in effect from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in all areas. state governments were allowed to put suitable restrictions on all activities, but state borders remained open to all. inter- and intrastate travel was permitted. limited international travel was permitted as part of the vande bharat mission. shops were permitted to allow more than five persons at a time. educational institutions, metros, recreational activities remained closed until 31 july. only essential activities were permitted in containment zones while maintaining strict parameter control and "intensive contact tracing, house-to-house surveillance, and other clinical interventions". further guidelines regarding usage of aarogya setu and masks were reiterated. unlock 3.0 (1–31 august) unlock 3.0 for august 2020 removed night curfews and permitted gymnasiums and yoga centres to reopen from 5 august. educational institutions would remain closed until 31 august. all inter-and intrastate travel and transportation are permitted. independence day celebrations are permitted with social distancing. maharashtra and tamil nadu imposed a lockdown for the whole month, while west bengal imposed lockdowns twice a week. unlock 4.0 (1–30 september) on 29 august 2020, the ministry of home affairs issued guidelines for activities permitted in unlock 4.0. it said that "lockdown shall remain in force in the containment zones until 30th september 2020". outside the containment zone, however, some activities were given permission. metro was allowed to be reopened in a graded manner from 7 september. marriage functions with gatherings of up to 50 people and funeral/last rites ceremonies with up to 20 people were permitted. religious, entertainment, political, sports, academic functions and gatherings of up to 100 people were allowed. face masks were made compulsory in public places, workplaces and during transport. unlock 5.0 (1–31 october) on 30 september 2020, the ministry of home affairs issued guidelines for activities permitted in unlock 5.0. for schools it has a preference for online learning if possible, but states and union territories will be able to make those decisions from 15 october, in a graded manner. lockdown shall remain in force strictly in the containment zones until 30 november 2020. also, swimming pools being used for training of sportsperson would be allowed to open. cinema halls, that had remained close all this while, could finally be opened from 15 october 2020, with a 50% of their seating capacity. on 3 november the government of kerala opened its tourism sector by reopening hill stations, beaches, national park, and inter-state public transport movement the government of india has decided to open all educational institutions by january 2021 including schools and colleges and universities across india. the government of kerala has decided to open its school from december 2020. unlock 6.0 (1–30 november) on 27 october 2020, the ministry of home affairs issued guidelines for activities permitted in unlock 6.0. the ministry of home affairs did not make any new changes to the existing unlock 5.0 guidelines in its latest instructions for another set of unlocking and said that they would continue to be implemented in the month of november too. also, a handful of states have allowed opening up of more activities outside containment zones and announced partial reopening of schools. lockdown has been enforced time and again in spite of attempts to permanently move towards an unlock phase. the government of india has extended the ban on scheduled international flights until january 31. lockdown in 2021 in february end 2021, india got hit by the largest covid wave. it is cited that people started becoming careless, not wearing masks and not following social distancing, around november- april. this wave caused a rapid surge in cases and deaths. cases started to rise by march 2021, resulting in state-wide lockdowns. in maharashtra there were total 4 phases of lockdowns from april to june. april 5–15 june 2021 (lockdown phase) when cases rapidly increased in maharashtra, cm uddhav warned people on march 28, 2021, to imposed complete lockdown and night curfew was imposed. schools and offices remained shut. on 4 april 2021 maharashtra cm uddhav thackeray announced a lockdown until april 30. on 5 april 2021 everything began to close due to rise in covid-19 second wave. only online deliveries were free at this stage. films like sooryavanshi, bunty aur babli 2 got postphoned due to covid-19's 2nd wave. several states and uts like tamil nadu, karnataka, kerala, rajasthan, bihar, nct of delhi, madhya pradesh, uttar pradesh, haryana, odisha, jharkhand, chhattisgarh, j&k, ladakh, goa, mizoram, meghalaya, west bengal, uttarakhand, puducherry, telangana, sikkim and himachal pradesh imposed complete lockdown whereas some like punjab, chandigarh, gujarat, andhra pradesh, assam, arunachal pradesh and nagaland imposed partial lockdown and major restrictions. from 15 june 2021, many states started lifting lockdowns and restrictions and moved in unlock phase. impact food delivery services were banned by several state governments despite the central government's approval. thousands of people emigrated out of major indian cities, as they became jobless after the lockdown. following the lockdown, india's electricity demand fell down to a five-month low on 28 march 2020. many states were keen on opening up liquor shops during the lockdown which was finally allowed in the 3rd phase beginning on 4 may. reports of a surge in illicit liquor sales and most importantly, drying up of revenue from liquor sales was the main stimulation. due to the lockdown, more than 350 deaths were reported as of 10 may, with reasons ranging from starvation, suicides, exhaustion, road and rail accidents, police brutality and denial of timely medical care. among the reported deaths, most were among the marginalised migrants and labourers. economic impact india had already been experiencing a prolonged economic slowdown. the gdp growth rate had fallen from 8.2% in january–march 2018 to 3.1% in january–march 2020. in the first quarter of the financial year 2020-2021, this number went into negative. the gdp growth rate for april–june 2020 was -23.9%, which happened to be the worst ever in history. crucial parameters like manufacturing, construction, trade, hotel industry saw a decline and slid into negative. manufacturing growth at -39.3%, mining growth at -23.3%, construction growth at -50%, trade & hotel industry growth at -47%. moreover, the effects of the lockdown have been disastrous in terms of household debt. migrant workers migrant workers stand in a queue for food at delhi government school during covid-19 lockdown at delhi with factories and workplaces shut down, millions of migrant workers had to deal with the loss of income, food shortages and uncertainty about their future. following this, many of them and their families went hungry. while government