New Delhi:Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said the nationwide lockdown of over eight weeks has trained the people of the country for the 'new norms' in lifestyle and the need for practising hygiene, physical distancing in day-to-day life.
Singh, the Union Minister for the PMO, also said that in a country as heterogeneous and populous as India, if people could avoid overcrowding to the maximum extent possible, this itself, will be one of the most rewarding 'new norms' in the time after the Coronavirus crisis blows over.
"While life has to move on and the show must go on, lockdown has inculcated in us the essential practices of hygiene, healthy maintenance of physical distance and discipline in day-to-day life," he told reporters here.
Singh said that the lockdown measures have revived the traditional practices of handwash and greeting people with folded hands which are going to be part of the 'new normal' social culture.
The minister said that the lockdown period taught everyone how to keep functioning and performing the professional work in spite of the constraint of not attending office.
"It is amazing that in many cases, the work output was higher while working from home, which will possibly mark a new opening in professional life in the times to come," he said.
Singh said when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown -- at a time when many of the European countries had refused to do so -- many questions were raised.