Health behaviour of the people is said to be shaped by market forces, scientific or religious institutions or the state. It is pertinent to examine the dominant institutions that shape health cultures in any society, at any given point in time. While public health has not been a priority for the Indian state, the COVID-19 pandemic created an unmistakable opportunity for state regulation. It is the argument of this article that the state has been central to the framing of the COVID-19 pandemic and the identification of relevant interventions, such that the borderline between the political and medical is blurred. The influence of these institutional decisions on the health behaviour of the people indicates that compliant health behaviour is a symbolic resource for the state in societies like India, irrespective of whether the government actually delivers on its health care delivery.

据说人们的健康行为受市场力量、科学或宗教机构或国家的影响。有必要检查在任何特定时间点在任何社会中塑造健康文化的主导机构。虽然公共卫生并不是印度的优先事项，但 COVID-19 大流行为国家监管创造了明确无误的机会。本文的论点是，国家一直是 COVID-19 大流行的框架和相关干预措施的确定的核心，因此政治和医学之间的界限变得模糊。这些制度决定对人们健康行为的影响表明，在印度等社会中，顺从的健康行为是国家的象征性资源，