Our nation is bleeding. Not because of the virus but because of the lockdown, a measure meant for developing nations that could sustain themselves under such an emergency.
Imposing a complete lockdown in India meant pushing a knife in our economy’s gut which already was not doing well. Moreover, even with the complete lockdown, we stand as the 5th highest nation with the most coronavirus cases. Somewhere something is not right.
We are not the only nation seething because of the virus but we are one who is in pain because of the negligence by our government and it is time we hold them accountable for it. We undertook this lockdown as if there was no other option. South Korea has successfully demonstrated that this is not the case. Today they stand successful with just 300 active cases. They got here not with a lockdown but because of their strategy of aggressive testing, tracking, and isolation.
Our government is capable of aggressive tracking but only when it comes to digging up anti CAA protestors. For a population of more than 2 billion only recently we touched one million with our testing. Our public health sector is wailing for resources to be able to counter the virus but to no avail. The hospitals do not have enough staff, we do not have enough PPE kits to provide to our doctors to protect themselves while dealing with COVID patients resulting in more than 400 positive cases of doctors exposed to the virus. Due to the severe shortage, we are not only forcing our health workers to do a job of 10 but are also putting them in situations that are bound to impact them psychologically. Most COVID patients spend their last hours in front of their doctors and seeing the amount of gloom and death in one day is bound to put you on the edge. Speaking of patients, most of them are forced to walk kms to get to the hospitals in lieu of lack of transport with an already weak body, and even then it is not certain that they would be able to get the treatment. Patients are going from one door to another trying to find one that is not slammed in their faces because the hospitals also have limited resources.
Another way to fight this battle was to follow Sweden’s model of voluntary social distancing. Laying the facts out and not deciding the fate of the people but letting them choose it on their own. It could have been successful in India owing to our Prime Minister’s massive following. If a man could collect 10 crore rupees in 2 months under the PM CARES fund he could come up with a strategy that focused on the social responsibility and sensibility of the citizens.
Furthermore, the migrant workers are rattled by the lockdown because they have no means of survival in the cities. If the government could bring back the trust in these workers that they will be provided with shelter and food and they will not be left to fend for themselves alone, maybe they would consider not walking back and crossing States on foot. The journey they are embarking on each day shows their vulnerability and lack of trust in the government. And so if our Home Minister Amit Shah could organise an online rally, not for the upcoming elections but to create awareness and talk about how the government is looking out for its citizens they could bring the faith back.
Yes, no one saw the virus coming and to safeguard each and every citizen of our nation is a hard job. But the people sitting in our Parliament houses are there at that position because they promised to protect their citizens, a job that they are clearly failing at right now.
In the last three months, more than 7 thousand people have died in India because of the virus and that number does not include the people who have died because of starvation, poverty, and those who could not find a bed in the hospitals. Those numbers are not provided to us or are reported on the official websites because they are not being recorded altogether. On top of that our municipality has seen a drop in our civic casualties of as low as 78% in some states because the organisation cannot record the deaths due to the lockdown. This means that we do not even know how many people are dying out there.
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As usual, the government did not plan what preparation was required to be done during lockdown. It is understandable that noone went through a drill for pandemic but with the information resources in hand , we expected the government to do better..
Good article shivi