Srinagar: Kashmir’s Parimpora fruit mandi (market) which primarily caters to supplies of fruits, vegetables, and groceries for the region, may render futile all the social-distancing measures taken so far for containing the coronavirus.
Every morning, when most of the population is asleep, wholesale traders arrive here along with their merchandise. They sell their fruits and vegetables to retailers as well as vendors, who huddle around them without maintaining any social distance. Most of them are without masks as well, a necessary protection gear for firewalling the virus. The exchange between the two parties takes place with scores of people gathered together. The buyers take the goods to sell in various localities, most of which are still under “containment zones”.
“What choice do we have? Staying at home or ensuring the necessary supplies reach people?” said Ali Muhammad, wholesaler supplier of vegetables for a decade now at the mandi.
Ali, like dozens of other wholesalers, comes to the mandi despite the authorities having locked the gates of one of the biggest mandis in India. This defiance takes place against the all day-all night lockdown, meant for containing the respiratory virus that has so far taken 10 lives in Jammu and Kashmir and infected over 800 people.
“Maintaining social distance is not possible when there are hundreds of people around. If we stop coming here, supplies will stop, rates will go up, and people will bleed,” he added. Ali was not wearing a mask while he was busy taking cash from a similarly unmasked buyer. So were others.
Ali’s concerns are reasonable. Prices of vegetables and fruits are already quite high due to shortage of supplies, despite the operations of the mandi. If the mandi will shut, the prices will be unaffordable for many people who are making do with whatever they earned during the pre-Covid times. Onions and potatoes are selling at Rs 40 a kg, against the usual rate of Rs 15. Mangoes are not less than Rs 100 a kg, against the usual price of Rs 50. Rates of watermelon have begun to go down by Rs 20 a kg after more supplies have arrived.
The Directorate of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Kashmir (FCSCAK), a department meant for regulating prices of essentials, is not able to keep a check on market prices.
Amid this situation, the operation of the mandi poses a grave risk to the population, and has the potential to reverse the gains made by the administration in containing the disease. According to Professor Parvaiz Koul, Head of Internal and Pulmonary Medicine at SKIMS Soura, social distancing is the only defence against the virus in the absence of any drug or vaccine.
“There is a high chance of its spread given that a lot of people are asymptomatic. So, the vendors should take precautionary measures like wearing masks and maintaining distance. I also understand that their business activity is important, but they must take care of themselves,” Prof Koul told Kashmir Reader.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz