schemes ensured that the poor would get additional rations due to the lockdown, the distribution system failed to be effective. with no work and no money, thousands of migrant workers were seen walking or bicycling hundreds of kilometres to go back to their native villages. many were arrested for violating the lockdown and some died of exhaustion or in accidents on the roads. on 29 march 2020, the government ordered landlords to not demand rent and employers to pay wages without deduction. it also announced that those who violated the lockdown were to be sent to government-run quarantine facilities for 14 days. in its report to the supreme court of india on 31 march, the central government stated that the migrant workers, apprehensive about their survival, moved in the panic created by fake news that the lockdown would last for more than three months. in late march, the uttar pradesh government decided to arrange buses at delhi's anand vihar bus station to take the migrants back to their villages for free. migrants across the country remained stranded until the last week of april, when the state governments were finally permitted by the central government to operate buses, but not trains. on 1 may 2020, the central government allowed the indian railways to launch "shramik special" trains for the migrant workers and others stranded. due to lack of coordination between originating states and railways, reports were claiming that migrants were being charged for the train tickets. the government faced criticism from the opposition. the railways later clarified that it was bearing 85% of the total cost of running and the rest 15% which makes up the ticket fare was being borne by the originating states. despite the launching of special trains and buses by the government, the migrant workers chose to either travel together in large groups. they did not wait their turn to board the government-arranged transport, mainly due to starvation and eagerness to reach their homes soon. additionally, they felt that going back to their hometowns, they could return to farming and take up small jobs under the mnrega. on 26 may 2020, the supreme court admitted that the problems of the migrants had still not been solved and that there had been "inadequacies and certain lapses" on the part of the governments. it thus ordered the centre and states to provide free food, shelter, and transport to stranded migrant workers. food supply chain the order issued by the home ministry on 24 march allowed the functioning of shops dealing with food items as well as the manufacturing units and transportation of "essential goods". however, the lack of clarity on "essential goods" meant that the policemen on the streets stopped workers going to factories and the trucks carrying food items. food industries also faced shortages of labour because the workers were unable to reach workplaces and the factory managers faced the fear of legal action. all these factors combined to result in shortages and a rise in the prices of food items. by the first week of april, essential industries such as growing, harvesting, and food deliveries were allowed to operate. relief on 26 march 2020, the indian government announced a relief package of $22.6 billion to assist the poor population hit economically by the covid-19 pandemic. the plan was to benefit the migrant workers through cash transfers and initiatives for food security. however, on 9 april 2020, economists and activists argued that a significant proportion of the affected population was unable to avail the facilities. only those registered with the federal food welfare scheme were able to secure benefits. according to a government of india report filed with the supreme court of india, as of 7 april, state governments operated 22,567 relief camps for stranded migrant workers, of which 15,541 camps (amounting to 68% of all) were operated by kerala, 1,135 camps by maharashtra, 178 camps by tamil nadu and smaller numbers by other states. non-governmental organisations were operating 3,909 camps. on 12 may 2020, modi announced that the government would provide 20 trillion rupees ($266 billion) in support package in fiscal and monetary measures to support the economy. impact on environment rivers had become cleaner as industries were closed due to the lockdown. the quality of air had significantly improved during the lockdown especially in metropolitan cities . effectiveness a poster for spreading awareness in india about the purpose of lockdown people were seen breaching the lockdown and not following social distancing by crowding in vegetable markets in some places. on 29 march, prime minister modi advised against this, urging people to stay home in his mann ki baat radio address. on 27 march 2020, the police arrested 8 people and registered a complaint against 150 people in hardoi for gathering at a mosque. on 2 april 2020, thousands of people assembled at temples in various parts of west bengal defying the lockdown for celebrating rama navami. 12 members of tablighi jamaat were arrested on 5 april 2020 in muzaffarnagar for defying the lockdown and organising an event. a priest in andhra pradesh was arrested for defying the lockdown and organizing a gathering of 150 people in a church. according to a study at shiv nadar university, india could have witnessed a surge of 31,000 cases of the disease between 24 march and 14 april without lockdown. a group of researchers at the university of oxford who tracked the governmental policy measures to counter the pandemic rated india's lockdown as one of the most stringent in the world, scoring "100 out of 100" on their tracker. they noted that india implemented school closures, border closure, travel bans, etc. but they said it was too early to measure their success in containing the pandemic. shamika ravi from brookings institution in india has noted that the growth rate of the pandemic has slowed from doubling every three days before the lockdown to doubling every six days by 6 april. it was derailed in the intervening period by the tablighi jamaat super spreader event in nizamuddin. by 25 april, it had further slowed to a rate of doubling every twelve days. in a routine press briefing on 22 may, dr. vk paul, chairman of the national task force on covid-19, along with officials from the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, announced that the growth rate of new cases came down to 5.5% on 15 may from 22.6% on 3 april. the doubling rate of cases stood at 13.5 days. the death rate decreased to 5.5% from 48.1% on 5 april. based on estimation models from various independent sources and mospi it was predicted that lockdown (1.0 + 2.0) helped avert 14-29 lakh cases and 37,000-78,000 deaths until 15 may. among various estimation models presented at the briefing the one by boston consulting group showed that 1.2m-210,000 lives were saved and 36-70 lakh cases were averted due to the lockdown until 15 may. another model by public health foundation of india predicted that 78,000 deaths were averted during the period. reception henk bekedam, who representative to india, praised the response describing it as "timely, comprehensive and robust". who executive director, mike ryan said that lockdowns alone will not eliminate coronavirus. he said that india must take necessary measures to prevent a second and third wave of infections. on 3 april 2020, dr david nabarro, who's special envoy on the disease, said that the "lockdown in india was early, far-sighted and courageous" and was better than waiting for another 3 or 4 weeks. in late march, two researchers from the university of cambridge came up with a new mathematical model that predicts a flat 49-day countrywide lockdown or sustained lockdown with periodic relaxation extending over two months may be necessary to prevent covid-19 resurgence in india. according to the economist, the lockdown was "all but certain to have exacerbated" the devastation of the pandemic. the center for disease dynamics, economics & policy (cddep) issued a report in late march, in collaboration with researchers from johns hopkins university and princeton university, where it said that a national lockdown is not "productive" and could cause "serious economic damage". it advocated state-level lockdowns in the most affected states. its models predicted that in the best-case scenario, a peak of one million hospitalisations would be encountered in early june. in an op-ed in the new york times, the cddep director laxminarayan explained that if the national lockdown finds good compliance, it would reduce the peak infections in early may by 70 to 80 percent, but still 1 million would require hospitalisation and critical care. he further hypothesised if the lockdown was not imposed the number of critical patients would have reached 5-6 million. the cddep released another report on 20 april, again in collaboration with researchers from johns hopkins university and princeton university. this report discussed the "potential impact of the lockdown". the study concluded that the lockdown would help in significantly slowing the spread of covid-19 in the country. it said that the lockdown would buy the government critical precursory time to expand covid-19 healthcare infrastructure, by keeping the hospitalisation rates in check and preventing the overwhelming of existing healthcare facilities. the study also said that the lockdown measures like physical distancing, ban on social gatherings, and movement restrictions would further delay and reduce the peak of infections and hospitalisation. economist jean drèze stated that the lockdown had been "almost a death sentence" for the underprivileged of the country, in an interview with news18. he went on to say, "the policies are made or influenced by a class of people who pay little attention to the consequences for the underprivileged".