Teaching lockdown violators a lesson

Tiruppur police’s awareness video, featuring skit staged by personnel, goes viral

25/04/2020, R. AKILEISH ,TIRUPPUR

In the video, the youths, locked inside an ambulance, plead with the police and two of them escape through a window.

In a novel attempt to warn violators of the COVID-19 lockdown, the Tiruppur district police have released an awareness video where violators are ‘punished’ by making them sit inside an ambulance with a person pretending to be a COVID-19 positive patient.

This entire video/play was staged by the police with the help of volunteers at Palladam on Thursday. The video, which runs for three minutes and 51 seconds, was uploaded on YouTube by the social media unit of the district police and garnered nationwide attention on various social media platforms on Friday.

The skit shows five youths riding bikes without masks. They are caught by the Palladam police during a vehicle check. “Do you know what will happen if you do not wear a mask?” Palladam Inspector (in-charge) G. Palaniyammal asks them and ushers them into an ambulance parked nearby. In the ambulance, a person is seen lying down wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), implying that he is a COVID-19 patient. Locked inside the ambulance, the youths plead with the police to release them, and two of them escape through the open window of the vehicle.

Ms. Palaniammal addresses the viewers at the end of the video, noting that the youths have realised the danger of COVID-19. “When you roam outside, you will not know who has [COVID-19],” she warns in the video, requesting people to stay home and wear masks while going outside.

“I have been receiving phone calls since morning,” Ms. Palaniammal told The Hindu on Friday, adding that those who called her assured her that people would not venture out unnecessarily after watching the video.

Important message

District Superintendent of Police Disha Mittal said the social media team of the district police conceptualised the awareness video. “People are still roaming on the roads. We wanted to drive home the message that [COVID-19] is everywhere,” she said. All the youths, including the ‘patient’, were volunteers who agreed to be a part of this skit, the SP noted.

When asked whether the video inadvertently stigmatises COVID-19 patients, Ms. Mittal clarified it was “not about the patients” and rather stresses on the need for the public to be careful. “When you wake up to the reality, it should not be too late. That is the point which we were trying to drive home through this video,” Ms. Mittal said.