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In its bid to flatten the COVID-19 curve, the Govt overlooked the need to formally integrate domestic violence/abuse into the public health preparedness and emergency response plan
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In the run-up to the announcement of a nationwide lockdown starting from March 25, there were several areas where the Government failed to craft a strategy to address its possible fallout. One such aspect that was completely ignored was the way to deal with incidents of domestic violence (DV) against women and children in the country during the 21-day shut down. The checks and balances that needed to be in place for victims of DV to resort to in their hour of need were unheeded.
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The term “domestic violence” (DV) is used in many countries to refer to intimate partner violence (IPV) but it also encompasses child or elder abuse, or abuse by any member of a household. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one in every three women across the globe experience physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by any perpetrators in their lifetime: At least 30 per cent of all women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner.
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It has been seen that violence against women tends to increase during every type of emergency, including epidemics. So, not surprisingly it has increased globally during the lockdowns enforced by governments to combat the spread of COVID-19. It is fuelled by social distancing, economic uncertainties and anxieties caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.
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For instance, countries like China, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Brazil, Tunisia, France, Australia and many others have reported cases of increased DV/IPV. India is also showing symmetrical trends, especially when it is infamous for being the fourth-worst country (after the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia) for gender equality (ranked by perception).
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According to the Crime in India Report, 2018, published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), every 1.7 minutes a crime was recorded against women in India, every 16 minutes a rape was committed and every 4.4 minutes a child is subjected to domestic violence.
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Within a few days of the lockdown, the National Commission for Women (NCW) noted a rise in the number of DV/IPV complaints received via e-mails. The NCW Chairperson believes that the real figure is likely to be more since the bulk of complaints comes from women in the lower strata of society, who send their complaints by post. In March and up to April 5, the NCW received 310 grievances of DV. During this period, a total of 885 complaints were received by the NCW for other forms of violence against women (example: Bigamy/polygamy; denial of maternity benefits to women; dowry deaths; harassment of married women/dowry harassment; outraging the modesty of women/molestation; rape/attempt to rape; right to live with dignity; sexual assault and sexual harassment). Several women’s rights organisations have also been receiving numerous DV complaints since the enforcement of the lockdown.
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The number of cases reported might not be proportional to the actual rise in the number of DV/sexual abuse cases. This is because the woman/child locked down with the abuser does not get access to a mobile phone or the space and time, with limited access to financial resources and social networks or even the courage when s/he could call up for help. In other words, all options of escape for the former from their situation of despair are impaired.
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Thus, the intensity of the impediments s/he would normally face has been exacerbated by the pandemic and the lockdown.
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While the NCW Chairperson has urged women to contact the police or reach out to State Women’s Commissions if they face DV or their children are being abused, it must be noted that there might be chances where the police are delayed in such rescues. This is because they are already handling challenges of enforcing the lockdown, ensuring delivery of essentials to vulnerable sections and in several places assisting health workers in the discharge of their duties. Further, women have felt additionally unsafe in approaching the police because they think that if their husbands are arrested, they could be harassed by in-laws, or once their husbands return, they or their children would be tortured even more.
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With partners and children potentially trapped at home during the COVID-19 lockdown, the rate and intensity of abuse could get even worse and extend to child abuse. Repeated acts of physical violence, such as slapping, hitting, kicking and beating; sexual violence, including forced sexual intercourse and other forms of sexual coercion; emotional (psychological) abuse, such as insults, belittling, constant humiliation, intimidation (e.g. destroying things), threats of harm, threats to take away children; controlling behaviour, including isolating a person from family and friends; monitoring their movements; restricting access to financial resources, employment, education or medical care, often result in depression, panic attacks, other anxiety disorders and even suicides.
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It often has lasting impacts on the survivors as research suggests that the memory of abuse persists long after the violence has stopped. This often results in chronic health problems and developing risks of many diseases that arise from prolonged stress.
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In the critical situation of trying to combat a pandemic, an increased number of women/children are faced with the plague of DV within their households. It must not come as a surprise because DV topped in the category of violence against women/girls in 2018. As per the data, a total of 89,097 cases related to crimes against women/girls were registered across India in 2018. The figures indicate that not much has improved when compared to the figure of 86,001 cases registered under this head in 2017. The crime rate per lakh women/girl population was 58.8 in 2018 in comparison to 57.9 in 2017.
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The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2015-16 highlighted that 30 per cent of women/girls in India in the age group of 15-49 experienced physical violence since the age of 15.
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Among married women experiencing physical, sexual or emotional violence, an alarming 83 per cent claimed that their husbands were the main perpetrators of such forms of abuse, followed by abuse from the mothers (56 per cent), fathers (33 per cent) and siblings of the husbands (27 per cent). The major crimes reported by women in India are — cruelty by husband or relatives (32.6 per cent), assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty (25 per cent), kidnapping and abductions (19 per cent) and rape (11.5 per cent).
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The above crime statistics are unable to capture the data on violence against women in its entirety. This is primarily due to the prevalence of orthodox social norms and the stigma that is placed on survivors of DV/sexual abuse which leads to such cases being grossly underreported. The report also shows that unemployment and alcoholism of the male partner are highly associated with DV/sexual abuse on women/girls.
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In addition to the direct health threat posed by the Coronavirus, the pandemic and restrictions aimed at checking its spread have heightened anxieties, right from apprehensions of catching the disease, to financial worries, to social concerns. There is also a concern that DV/sexual abuse would further increase with job losses and other economic pressures. An added challenge has been the importance of intertwined negative psycho-social impact on mental health of women/girls.
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In the attempt to flatten the COVID-19 curve, women’s equality and physical and mental health seem to have suffered a collateral damage. The Government overlooked the need to formally integrate DV/sexual abuse and mental health repercussions into the public health preparedness and emergency response plans against Coronavirus. In fact, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) that seeks to “eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against women in the public and private spheres and to undertake reforms to give them the same rights to economic resources and access to property by 2030”, is being enormously compromised.
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Members of the community must be made aware about the increased risks to women’s/girls health and life in the lockdown days. They must develop the ethos to condemn violence and shoulder the responsibility of offering all possible assistance to ensure their safety. In its efforts against COVID-19, the Government must allow civil society organisations, counsellors, mental health organisations and providers to come to the rescue of the women/girls facing DV/sexual abuse. Reaching out to women/girls in distress and the need to address the various forms of violence against them need to be classified as an “essential service” by the Government. Finally, the perpetrators of DV/IPV/sexual abuse must be brought to trial and repeat offenders must be dealt with strictly as per the provisions of law.
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(Writer: Simi Mehta|Balwant Mehta| Arjun Kumar ; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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Despite all the propaganda trotted out by Beijing, some scars may remain for decades, bringing the most drastic changes to China’s image in the world
Moustapha Dahleb, the Chadian doctor and author, gave one of the most touching descriptions of COVID-19, the pandemic that is presently plaguing the earth. In his blog titled, “Humanity Shaken by a Small Thing (Un Petit Machin)”, he argues, “A small microscopic thing called coronavirus is upsetting the planet. Something invisible has come to make its law. It questions everything and upsets the established order. Everything is put back in place, otherwise, differently.”
Among other collaterals, “the Small Thing” has triggered two wars on a scale not seen since World War II and the subsequent Cold War between the Western and Soviet blocks. The first war is against the “Small Thing” itself as to how to stop its worldwide spread and find a vaccine. China and the US, the world’s two super powers, are competing to win the battle. In China, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been working harder than anybody to find a solution. Is it because the PLA was no stranger to the first spread of the virus? It may take years or even decades to know the truth. Meanwhile, as early as January 26, a 54-year-old PLA General, Chen Wei, headed to Wuhan “to fight the epidemic” and take over the civilian Wuhan Institute of Virology (partially funded by France).
Further on March 16, China announced that the lady General had developed a vaccine for the Coronavirus and it had entered the first stage for clinical trials. According to Chinascope, a Chinese website based in the US, it is the first recombinant Coronavirus vaccine (adenovirus vector) approved for clinical trial. Volunteers, organised in three groups with 36 people in each, were given injections; Gen Chen was the first to be injected. The Global Times called Chen “a real pathfinder.” Before taking charge of the Wuhan lab, Chen was associated with the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS).
It was, however, pointed out that it would have taken at least five months to develop the recombinant vaccine approved today by Beijing. Chinascope explained, “The US has also developed a vaccine in a short period but it was based on a different technology (mRNA technology), which could take about 40 days to do. The traditional recombinant vaccine could provide a permanent cure but the mRNA vaccine is like a flu shot that needs to be done every year.” The question, therefore, is, when did the PLA start developing the vaccine to be able to complete the research in five months? Did China know about the “Small Thing” earlier than announced (end of December)? It’s difficult to answer this question but China will probably win the first war.
The second war triggered by the “Small Thing” is to do with information warfare, though this isn’t new. The US website, War on the Rocks, explained, “Several countries are employing disinformation and messaging campaigns around COVID-19 in a branding effort to ensure they are not blamed for the pandemic in the history books.”
For the Communist Party of China (CPC), it is a question of life and death. War of the Rocks asserted: “As the number of COVID-19 cases in China has reportedly declined, Chinese State-run media and diplomats have waged a disinformation campaign against the US in an attempt to distract from Beijing’s mismanagement of the crisis.”
It cites historical examples from the Soviet era, when the same tactics were used, attempting to bring a new narrative: “The origin of the virus is unknown. It could have come from anywhere in the world. China has been a model in handling the sensitive issue. Beijing can now advise the world how to go about it.”
Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, started to use vitriolic Twitter attacks against critics of his country. He alleged that the American military was at the origin of the virus. The argument went so far that China’s Ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, had to contradict his spokesperson. Cui said that it was “crazy” to spread rumors about the Coronavirus originating from a military laboratory in the US.
China may lose the second war. In a few months or years, the “Small Thing” will have eventually dissolved or disappeared (it has already to a great extent in China if one is to believe the Chinese propaganda) but some scars may remain for decades, bringing the most drastic changes to China’s image in the world.
Take Italy, they trusted Chinese President Xi Jinping and agreed to participate in his Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As a the result, more than three lakh Chinese came to work in Northern Italy, where the tragedy started. Then the case of Holland; the Dutch Health Ministry announced it had recalled 600,000 face masks from China. Ditto was the case for Spain. Its Government encountered similar problems with testing kits ordered from a Chinese company and withdrew a batch of rapid test kits manufactured by China. Turkey and the Czech Republic also announced that they had found some testing kits, ordered from Chinese companies, were not sufficiently accurate.
Examples could be multiplied. China imported about 2.5 billion healthcare items, including visors, masks, gloves and ventilators from Australia between January 24 and February 29, leaving Australian frontline medical staff without protective equipment when the virus struck that country. Masks and other items have to be bought back at often highly inflated prices.
Critics have also accused Beijing of trying to split the European Union (EU) by shipping equipment to certain nations on more favourable terms than others, while leaving the US, the present epicenter of the pandemic, in the lurch. This scar will remain for a long time despite Beijing’s all-out propaganda. Eventually, Xi will have to answer some hard questions from those in Beijing, who were or are in favour of a softer and more human approach to other nations in difficulty.
But the most valuable lesson of the “Small Thing’s” strike is well described by Moustapha Dahleb: “Suddenly the pollution has dropped, people have started having time, so much time that they don’t even know what to do with it. Parents get to know their children, kids learn to stay with their families, work is no longer a priority, travel and leisure are no longer the norm for a successful life. Suddenly, in silence, we turn around in ourselves and understand the value of the words solidarity and vulnerability. Suddenly we realise that we are all on the same boat, rich and poor.”
Let us hope that the “Small Thing” can bring more humanity to this planet despite the high price paid by all nations.
(Writer: Claude Arpi; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Dictatorship was clearly where Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán was heading — and now he has arrived with the passage of an ‘emergency’ law
Hello, dictator!” said Jean-Claude Juncker cheerily to Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán, at a European Union summit a couple of years ago. The president of the European Commission was only joking, of course, but it was gallows humour. Dictatorship was clearly where Orbán was heading — and now he has arrived.
Recently the Hungarian Parliament passed a new law, allegedly to deal with the Coronavirus crisis. The law declares a state of emergency and allows Orbán to rule by decree for the duration of the crisis — but it doesn’t say when that state of emergency will end. That will be decided by the man who has just been granted supreme power. Orbán’s spokesman, Zoltán Kovács, helpfully explained, “Just as in wartime, a state of emergency could extend until the end of hostilities. Today we confront not a military power but are in a war-like state to defend our people against a pandemic the likes of which we have not seen in a century.”
“Never waste the opportunity offered by a good crisis,” as Machiavelli allegedly said 500 years ago. So is what we are seeing in Hungary now the tip of the iceberg? Will governments in other democracies whose leaders have dictatorial ambitions use the Coronavirus crisis as an excuse to give themselves absolute powers? Will Rodrigo Duterte take “emergency” powers to get around the one-term Filipino presidential limit that obliges him to quit in two years’ time? Will Narendra Modi copy Indira Gandhi’s 1975 “Emergency” and set up as the “temporary dictator” of India? Will Recep Tayyip Erdogan destroy what remains of Turkey’s democracy to save himself if his popularity declines further? For that matter, will Donald Trump use the great wave of American Coronavirus deaths in the coming months and an alleged threat of mass disorder as an excuse for postponing the November election, especially if his prospects for re-election are not looking bright? It’s a toss-up with Duterte, who is responsible for so many murders that he can never safely retire. But for the rest, the answer is almost certainly “no.”
Both Modi and Erdogan have created solid blocs of religious supporters, who practically guarantee their political futures (at great cost to the unity and future prospects of their respective countries). They don’t need to destroy democracy to survive. As for Trump, whose “base” is too narrow to assure him a political victory in November if other elements of his victorious 2016 coalition defect, he doesn’t really have the option of cancelling the election. Americans’ loyalty to their ancient Constitution is still too strong to let that happen. In any case, Trump probably won’t need such extreme measures to hold on to office. He is already re-writing the script so that his heavy responsibility for the silent carnage that awaits the country is erased in the public’s mind by his last-minute swerve towards a strong policy of social distancing that averts a much greater loss of life. Hail the saviour!
Which leaves us, then, with the question of why Orbán is going to such political extremes when he already had all the power he could possibly want. He has already fiddled with the Constitution so that his party can win a two-thirds majority of the seats in Parliament on only 44 per cent of the votes.
Hungary is effectively a one-party State and the media and the judges both serve Orbán’s Fidesz Party, not the general public. He even had a “state of emergency” in place already, declared in 2016 during the great refugee flood of that year (though none of the refugees came to Hungary) and he has never rescinded it. True, he can now hand out five-year prison sentences to Hungarians who spread “false” information but the courts were already giving his critics multiple shorter sentences if they got too noisy. Why go to this extra trouble when it might even tip the European Union into expelling Hungary as a non-democratic country (although I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one)?
I once spent a day with Orbán in Budapest, when we were both much younger men. He was a student leader who had just got famous for defying the Communists with a fiery nationalist speech and I had spent the summer in the Soviet Union interviewing the emerging democratic Opposition. (We were introduced by Hungarian-born philanthropist George Soros, then Orbán’s mentor and later a prime target of his rabid anti-Semitism.) We had much to talk about and I enjoyed his company. What struck me, though, was that he really thought like a lawyer. Maybe a radical one and certainly later a corrupt one. But a lawyer by character and by training. So maybe what he’s doing now is just tidying up the law. Hungary was already a dictatorship in practice. Now it’s also one in theory.
(Writer: Karan bhasin; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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Aggressive door-to-door screening and testing have put the epicentre town of Rajasthan on the road to recovery
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Much has been written about how China stifled the Wuhan contagion by aggressive containment and sealing the city so that nobody could leave it, thereby confining and choking the virus in the hotspot. Of course, one wonders why China could not have shown the same military aggression when cases started multiplying, under reported them instead, turned down world virologists and WHO and erred on saving the world a disaster. A bigger success story is of Taiwan next to China, which has had positive cases but deaths in single numbers. That’s because it adopted an aggressive protocol since the last week of January, with senior Government officials travelling to China, inspectors keeping a watch on board flights, the Government suspending flights from China and then tracing, isolating, testing, treating and re-testing each citizen with a travel history, monitoring his/her every move. This it topped up with an emergency protocol should there be a flood at anytime. This is perhaps the model that Bhilwara has adapted and applied rigorously to contain the spiral of the disease. Even as the number of Covid-19 cases in India are leaping through the charts, there have been no new cases at Bhilwara, although it was a hotspot with cases spreading from a hospital. The last Coronavirus case in Bhilwara was reported on March 30 when the total positive cases in the district were 26 with two deaths. It is difficult to believe that what was once considered the epicentre of Rajasthan has turned around an intractable situation. The Bhilwara administration acted fast, enforcing a curfew and sealing district borders on March 20, even before the national lockdown. After quarantining the entire hospital staff and patients, it went for aggressive testing, conducting a door-to-door screening of its 28 lakh population to detect any signs of community transmission. It allowed bare essential shops and medical stores to stay open for limited hours while the administration home-delivered ration, fruit and vegetable supplies through local booths. The administration is now contemplating home-delivering milk and medicines so that nobody steps out at all and even cancelling curfew passes. The police are enforcing the curfew through regular patrols. The confinement has minimised the possibility of spread as nobody has been allowed to even walk the streets, leave aside crowding markets. Although it has tested 300 to 400 samples every day, the authorities are planning to ramp that up to 4,000 over the next few days. Not only that, since the samples were being sent to Jaipur, which is about 250 km away and identification took time, the town will have its own testing set-up this weekend. In effect, the entire district is under watch, cut off from the world. And till it is an all-clear, it will continue the rigour.
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Perhaps, this is what the Health Ministry is considering as trends clearly establish that 80 per cent of the infection has occurred in 62 districts. And while the lockdown may be eased in low-density parts of the country, the hotspots could be subjected to an aggressive testing and containment protocol along what has come to be known as the Bhilwara model. In fact, India’s fight against COVID-19 can only be tackled if it is decentralised down to the unit level and policy-makers let specific geographies and local dynamics decide how things could work best at a cluster. The non-pharmaceutical intervention is the best way to contain the crisis given India’s non-existent health infrastructure and Bhilwara has shown how to bring the virus out of hiding. The faster we do it, the easier it will be for us to get back on the road to recovery and get the economy going.
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(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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Even if the initial downplaying and non-evacuation of the Coronavirus-ridden USS Theodore Roosevelt was a practical necessity, the US naval leadership did not handle it properly
A cruel irony plays out as the powerful Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, succumbs precariously to what the US President had cuttingly called the “Chinese virus” or Coronavirus. The irony gets magnified with the ship’s call sign, “Rough Rider” and its motto, Qui Plantavit Curabit, or, “He, who has planted, will preserve.” With more than 100 sailors infected with the Novel Coronavirus, the mighty battle platform has been rendered ineffective like never before. The gargantuan warship with over 1,17,000 tonne displacement capacity to carry 90 aircraft and 5,000 crew members had been leading a China-centric strike group encompassing an air wing, cruiser and six destroyers before it figuratively ran aground with the first COVID-19 case being reported on any US naval vessel deployed overseas. The sheer apathy and indecisions surrounding the crisis in the US Navy are obvious from the fact that the first reported case came on March 24 and the request to contain the predicament went unheeded till it led to a spiralling of infected cases aboard. An embarrassing SOS followed from the Captain of the battleship.
Captain Brett Crozier wrote a desperate and blunt four-page letter to the naval leadership asking for “decisive action” and warned that the continuing dilly-dallying was “unacceptable.” His moving words, “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors”, hit at the soul of the seafaring nation with a proud naval tradition. The US’s legendary politician, the former Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, had famously said, “No matter what happens, the US Navy is not going to be caught napping.”
Seemingly, it was caught napping in this incident as the optics were almost similar to the Japanese civilian cruise liner, Diamond Princess. Confusion led to the onboard quarantining of the ship with 712 out of the 3,711 passengers and crew infected with Coronavirus. Inaction on the part of the US Navy in responding to the initial request for containment measures onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt led to a similar multiplication of infection. The $10 billion platform has now become a breeding ground for Coronavirus.
Living conditions on these platforms are extremely constrained to say the least. Sailors are placed cheek-by-jowl across a labyrinth of decks lined by steep ladder-like stairs and very narrow corridors. Armed to the teeth, the free space available is at a super-premium with up to 60 sailors sharing a sleeping compartment that is in bunk or rack formation, crammed together in stacks of three. All 60 of them could be sharing one bathroom with a very sparse common area. Workplaces are similarly constricted. The space to maintain the prescribed social distancing or to have proper decontamination is not possible without full evacuation.
However, evacuation has been the bone of contention with the Captain suggesting a residual force of 10 per cent or 500 members to stay on board to perform sustenance duties; whereas the Chief of Naval operations has insisted on 1,000 sailors in order to maintain the safety and security of the ship.
At stake is the nuclear power plant, four squadrons of Boeing F-18 fighter aircraft, one squadron of Growler electronic warfare aircraft, two squadrons of Seahawk multi-mission helicopters, one squadron of Grumman E-2 Hawkeye early warning aircraft and another squadron of Greyhound cargo aircraft. Besides, the aircraft carrier’s own munitions, including three Phalanx CIWS, two RIM-7 Sea Sparrow weapons systems and two RIM-116 infrared surface-to-air missiles. Securing the operational worthiness of the ship has inadvertently counter-posited the same vis-à-vis the concern for the safety of the sailors onboard. While the US naval top brass is rejecting allegations of either a lackadaisical attitude or failure to take care of its sailors, this incident has highlighted the overall lack of preparedness and sensitivity towards such exigencies — be it in the civilian or in the military realm.
However, what will haunt the hallowed institution of the US armed forces much after the Coronavirus crisis has settled is not so much the apparent defencelessness from a
medical or an infrastructural perspective, as much as the reaction of its senior leadership towards the soldiers at the forefront.
Captain Brett Crozier alluded to this leadership aspect when he stated that keeping the crew on the ship was “an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those sailors entrusted to our care.” Equally, the leak of the letter to the Press has also diminished the principle of good order, restraint and discipline that behoves a combat leader, whatever the circumstances.
Even a direct letter to the ostensible Commander-in-Chief, as opposed to the Press, would have been construed to be a lesser dereliction of the institutional traditions. This incident will trigger a debate on the sacred covenant between the soldier and service, which always prides that they “leave no men behind.” Sometimes, the practicality of the situation and the cruel principle of “larger good” lead to an unfortunate compromise as it happened in the US’ decision to drop atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This, knowing it fully well that occupied American prisoners-of-war (POWs) were held up in these locations. Even if the initial downplaying and non-evacuation of the Coronavirus ridden USS Theodore Roosevelt was a practical necessity, it was not handled with the required concern, alacrity and reassurance from the naval leadership.
Naval leaderships are given to the very finest and noblest traditions that always put the honour of the nation and the people under command above the interest of the leaders themselves. The saga of Indian Navy’s captain, MN Mulla, who chose to go down with his ship in the India-Pakistan war, is the sort of DNA that professional navies thrive on.
Therefore, the US Navy will be forced to navel-gaze on its own handling of the USS Theodore Roosevelt issue as the most visible, intimidating and deadly “five acres of mobile US land.” Diplomacy cannot sink to such lows.
(Writer: Bhopinder Singh; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The much-recommended measure of social distancing practised around the globe to stem the spread of this pandemic is almost impossible in many parts of India
When pandemics hit, they usually hit the poor the hardest, if not the first. Like the months bygone, the next couple of months are going to schlep through the looming threat of the contagion bulging into the next stage of community spread. This may precipitate the exponential disease spikes and deaths in numbers that we can very well speculate. They may be in thousands if not millions, considering the poverty and density of population. It is high time that we stand up and walk with the Government and aid its efforts to fight the pandemic by not only following its instructions on social distancing and not hoarding essential commodities but also by contributing intelligent observations and suggestions.
We have seen so far that COVID-19 can quickly overwhelm the health systems of countries, including those nations that are said to have advanced healthcare systems, like Italy and the United States (US). The ongoing rise in mortality in such developed nations portends a very dark future for poorer nations with inadequate healthcare facilities, including ours.
The first line of defence against any pandemic is surveillance: Monitoring human (and animals where relevant) populations to spot outbreaks and containing them at the earliest. In countries with overall impoverished infrastructure, isolated outbreaks are likely to go undetected longer and thus simmer and spread.
At the current stage, our public healthcare system is expected to detect where the virus is spreading and collect high-quality real-time data from various geographies and groups of people, identifying pockets of infection before they multiply into larger outbreaks.
It is for our health systems to be able to figure out which communities can expect to see a rise in Coronavirus cases and where to allocate resources in anticipation of rising hospitalisations.
Without quality data, no one can respond appropriately to this fatal threat, neither as individuals nor as a society. Nor can we learn whether countermeasures adopted so far against the pandemic are working or not. The most important component of the contagion data is information from the laboratory tests detecting active infections, past infections, immunity status of people as well as assessing herd immunity in communities. These present a real picture of the Coronavirus’ spread and status in the country.
The priorities of action plans for the road back to normalcy would be maintaining a robust and vigilant healthcare system, a firm administration with impeccable attention to detail regarding the nuances of the vulnerable groups living at the edges (migrants and daily wage labourers) and an effective targetted (sentinel) surveillance system.
If the country’s systems function to their full potential, we would be able to learn where the Coronavirus is dormant. And once we know the location and size of the problem, we can start leaving our homes gradually, return to work and attend schools and universities, bring businesses back in shape and let people congregate for movies, meetings, weddings or mass prayers.
An observation, or rather a lesson learnt from countries battling the Coronavirus in an advanced stage than ours, is that the threats posed by the virus have cast a spotlight on the shortcomings in healthcare systems across the globe. The population of billions in India may be the next battleground in the fight against the contagion if proactive measures are not undertaken at this stage.
Home to one-third of the world’s slum-dwelling population, India is largely filled with people battling poverty and poor education (including health education and general inadequate know-how about things), existing co-morbid conditions and most importantly hygiene challenges (i.e., limited access to resources such as clean water, soap, disinfectants and so on).
The much-recommended measure of social distancing practised around the globe to stem the spread of this pandemic is almost impossible in many parts of India. With a population density of 2,77,136 people per square kilometre (sq km) in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum to 1,25,000 people per sq km at the Rasoolpura slum in Hyderabad, the difficulty in observing social distancing is self-explanatory. Slums are an integral part of a city’s economy as those are where a majority of the labour force and domestic help stays, all around the country. Now, with three cases of Coronavirus cases appearing in the Dharavi slum, these places are also a ticking time bomb where the contagion is concerned.
The biggest challenge regarding hygiene is overcrowding around common toilets — Dharavi slum has one toilet per 1,440 residents. The Covid-19 virus is known to survive longer than three days in faecal matter, which makes crowding around toilets and living amid bad drainage a major threat.
The focus must now shift to proactive testing for asymptomatic and symptomatic Covid-19 bearers, within the most vulnerable, high population density pockets of India.
There are genuine capacity issues but we need mandatory Covid-19 testing of all slum inhabitants across the country. Quarantine is a must for the asymptomatic and symptomatic bearers of the Coronavirus in slum zones in different pre-identified, isolated locations.
This test data is vital in enabling the right strategy to manage the next steps of Coronavirus containment and eradication. The health system hence should encourage doctors to test liberally (without any out-of-pocket payment from the people given their economic status).
About laboratory test data, we see that unlike in developed nations, the data is either incomplete or completely unavailable in developing nations like ours due to poor infrastructure and coordination issues. This makes it impossible for administrators, scientists, healthcare professionals, researchers and the general citizen to assess the extent and significance of the testing efforts.
The other component of an effective healthcare system of a low-income country is to focus on serology tests. RT-PCR is the confirmatory test for COVID-19 which is currently priced at Rs 4,500 per test and takes more than a day for the result to be available. The serology tests on the other hand are much cheaper and can be used extensively for screening. These are not confirmatory tests and hence not used in clinical practice but these tests have value in epidemiology studies and herd immunity assessment.
These tests screen blood for the antibodies that confer immunity after exposure to a pathogen. In public health management, this is essential for tailoring interventions and stopping local spread of a disease, especially a contagious one. Serology is uniquely useful for defining specific anti-viral immunity. If you know that a large percentage of people have been exposed and developed some immunity, it may allow for less-restrictive measures. These tests can be added to routine blood draws with no additional hassle for the patient.
For instance, in the US, ever since the Coronavirus outbreak began, many different groups have ramped up their efforts to develop a serological test. Should a test like this ever become available to the public, it could radically shape how healthcare professionals decide who gets to leave home and return to some semblance of a normal life.
Considering the current status of the Coronavirus contagion, with the uncovering of 10 hotspots of the viral infection within the country, a sentinel surveillance system must now exist in full force and to the highest accuracy.
The Government needs to build it with dedicated funding, perhaps as part of the next stimulus package. This will require an efficient data-collection system that allows cases/suspected hotspots of the disease to be identified and tracked in real time (without overburdening providers with data entry and case reports).
Many of our citizens have already called for the need for special financing arrangements to support surveillance and preparedness for the worst-case scenario of a fierce outbreak. They have also underscored the importance of incentivising the right type of capacity-building, including the right research and evidence-generation capability, to enable effective containment of infection and other mitigation strategies. With funds coming in from various sources and from the taxpayers’ money that is directed towards the COVID-19 response, India, even with a weak healthcare system should concentrate on this and use all available resources wisely until we come out of the pandemic, bruised but not totally defeated.
(Writer: Suravi sharma kumar; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The long march undertaken by migrant workers has reminded India of its poor but how long will this awareness last?
One can argue that this is not the time to discuss the view, however credible, that the 21-day lockdown has been imposed without adequate thought to its consequences, particularly on the poor. The emphasis now, the argument may continue, should be exclusively on repulsing the COVID-19 invasion which has brought India to a standstill and threatens to play havoc with its life. There is a point in this, as there is equally a point in the contention that the subject needs to be discussed threadbare both from the viewpoint of ensuring accountability on the part of the authorities and the need to avoid in future the mistakes that have been made.
While leaving such a discussion for a post-Corona time — which, one hopes, is not far away — one needs to focus on a related question: How is it that few could anticipate the post-lockdown trudge of hundreds and thousands of migrant daily wage workers, often with their entire families including women and children in tow, to their village homes hundreds of miles away? Anyone familiar with the Indian tradition of family and community support, which survives in a great measure in rural areas despite erosion in urban societies, should have known that the first instinct of starving labourers, without work and shelter and facing uncertain futures, would be to go back to their village homes, with which most of them retain close ties.
The reason is simple: The poor have vanished as an active presence in the consciousness of those who now set the agenda for discourse in India. This was not always so. Mahatma Gandhi’s abiding concern for the poor and making their well-being the touchstone for all action has been reflected in his iconic observation, “Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen, and ask yourself if this step you contemplate is going to be any use to him.” He also stated, “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” Equally well-known is his theory of trusteeship, the essence of which he expressed succinctly when he said, “Supposing I have come by a fair amount of wealth — either by way of legacy, or by means of trade and industry — I must know that all that wealth does not belong to me; what belongs to me is the right to an honourable livelihood, no better than that enjoyed by millions of others. The rest of my wealth belongs to the community and must be used for the welfare of the community.”
The presence of a socialist influence in the Indian National Congress as early as the 1930s was reflected in the formation of the All-India Congress Socialist Party in 1934 under the chairmanship of Acharya Narendra Deva with Jayaprakash Narayan as secretary. The Congress had a number of important socialist leaders like Sampurnanand, Achyut Patwardhan, Ram Manohar Lohia and Minoo Masani. After Independence, the socialists left the Congress and established the Praja Socialist Party, Socialist Party and the Samyukta Socialist Party respectively and their leaders like SM Joshi, NG Goray, Madhu Limaye and George Fernandes played important roles in the country’s politics. Anger over exploitation and the suffering of the poor was, perhaps, the most powerful driving force behind Karl Marx’s intellectual and political exertions and the programmes of the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the various Naxalite groups.
For a long time after Independence, the Congress remained oriented towards a moderate, albeit nebulous, form of the ideology. After Parliament had accepted in 1954 the establishment of a “socialist pattern of society” as the aim of economic development, the Avadi session of the Congress, adopted, in January, 1955, a resolution calling for the “establishment of a socialistic pattern of society where the principal means of production are under social ownership or control” and there is “equitable distribution of the national wealth.” Later, Indira Gandhi, who nationalised banks, insurance, coal mines and abolished the privy purses of the princes, rode to a massive victory in the 1971 mid-term elections on the slogan of Garibi Hatao (Remove Poverty).
The shift towards a change in the party’s political and economic trajectory, however, became manifest from the early 1980s. The launch of the “economic reforms” in 1991 saw, in effect, the defenestration of all talk of socialism. The emphasis was now on the market economy and unleashing the animal instinct of Indian entrepreneurs. As in most cases, economic change had its cultural and social consequences. Poverty has ceased to be of concern to the middle class, which enjoys unprecedented purchasing power and which sets the agenda for discourse in the country, constituting over 30 per cent of the population.
The instinctive tendency to look away has been reinforced in its case by the dynamics of a market economy where the driving force is sales, the volume of which is critically linked to revenue and the quantum of profit. Its cutting edge advertising seeks to boost sales by projecting products as not only covetable in themselves but their possession as a measure of a person’s worth. With advertising dominating media, particularly television, the latter shaping people’s mindsets as never before, conspicuous consumption as a means of showing off, has assumed an unprecedented universality. It is almost a new religion that worships wealth and possession and not the character of a person. There is no time for the poor who are reduced to invisibility and are often looked down with contempt as failures.
There have been other changes. The poor and the alleviation of their poverty no longer occupy the centrestage of the political discourse in India. They have now been taken over by issues like the terrorist threat to the country, the Ram temple, the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens. One reason for this is, of course, the advent of Hindutva politics and its concomitants. Another is the Congress’s new orientation. It does refer to the poor from time to time but that is mostly en passent. Even otherwise, the decline in its political fortunes gives a cry-in-the-wilderness dimension to its pronouncements. Equally a factor has been the decline in Marxism’s political appeal given its abandonment in Russia and China and the decline of Left politics in general in India. The result: Loss of visibility by poor. The long march and its horrors have made them visible again. But for how long?
(Writer: Hiranmay Karlekar; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Despite all controversies, China continues to be the biggest supplier of medical equipment to the US. By exporting humanitarian relief, it is setting a new world order
With the Chinese making a conciliatory statement, the war of words — of accusations and counter accusations — between the US and China appears to be thawing. As the epicentre of the pandemic has shifted from China to Europe and the US, there may be a window of opportunity. With the successful handling of the Coronavirus crisis, even as the rest of the world is grappling with the menace, China maybe eyeing to squeeze diplomatic capital out of such a humanitarian overture. It’s truly a case of schadenfreude. Foreign leaders, from the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, have all thanked China loudly for the medical supplies and teams of doctors received by them while at the same time chiding their neighbours for abandoning them. Spain has already decided to buy medical equipment and supplies from China worth a few hundred million US dollars.
Pakistan is reported to have opened its land border with China on the Karakoram highway in order to receive a generous consignment of medical supplies. In fact, an informal offer of building makeshift hospitals in India to treat COVID-19 patients on the pattern of the set-up in Wuhan also exists. And despite all the controversies, China continues to be the biggest supplier of medical equipment to the US.
Talking of controversies, there are some, which refuse to die, even with the passage of time. Considering the widespread human interest involved, some of these continue to be kept alive by conspiracy theories. In the context of Coronavirus, a lot has already appeared in the media but in a latest salvo, US President Donald Trump has targetted the World Health Organisation (WHO) while China has spoken strongly in support of the global health body. However, there is a background to the accusations made by America vis-a-vis the WHO.
Its contention is that despite the disease in its initial stages remaining confined to Wuhan, where the virus first caused an outbreak, it was neither tagged with China nor the province. Even when all the details were not available, it could have been tagged geographically or simply named as the Chinese virus. It was much later that the WHO named it as COVID-19, avoiding any mention of China. On the other hand, we have seen in the past, Spanish flu, Japanese encephalitis, German measles and some other country or place specific diseases, breaking the geographical barriers to become international pandemics. China has somehow managed to escape this tagging.
We are aware that both H5N1 bird flu and Severely Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had originated from the Chinese province of Guangdong. Yet, both these, even at their peaks, had managed to avoid the Chinese tag.
Sometimes, the name tags can also be greatly misleading with disastrous results. It is now known that the 2009 pandemic, which was popularly known as the Swine flu, was actually spread by humans and not pigs. But in its attempt to prevent contagion, a country in the Middle East mistakenly slaughtered a few lakh pigs.
Undeniably, there appears to be a certain degree of politics attached with the nomenclature of labelling such fatal diseases. In this regard, the decisions are taken at the level of the WHO, which hosts the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The current guidelines for nomenclature have been criticised by a number of scientific organisations.
It is the general opinion that by simply giving numbers to alphabetic codes, people at large are unable to appreciate the gravity of the disease. For instance, the letters HN denote the genetic size and sequence of the virus Hemagglutinin Neuraminidase. On the other hand, geographical labels tend to convey some very useful information for the world at large.
By leveraging their financial clout over certain international institutions, the Chinese have disturbed the existing order. This has not gone well with Western powers, who in any case had been increasingly looking inwards. Besides, there has been the question of financial support to such institutions, too. This is bound to make an impact on the post- Corona economic revival. In the given situation, the Chinese stand to gain substantially at the cost of others and emerge as a domineering influence cannot be ruled out.
Such a situation was in the making for a long time. In fact, ever since the economic downturn of 2008-09 and with the drying up of resources, there appeared to be some kind of a vacuum as far as investments in Europe were concerned. This space was readily occupied by China.
According to data compiled by the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi, the Chinese investments in Europe between 2010-17 have been of the order of $318 billion, which is 45 per cent more than their investments in the US. In fact, they have been targetting technologies that can, in the long run, provide a key to their own critical infrastructure. During this period, China has taken over 360 European companies, ranging from Pirelli & cSpA of Italy to Kuka AG robotics of Germany. ChemChina, a chemical firm in China, has acquired the Swiss giant Syngenta for $46 billion. The penetration of the communication giant Huawei with its 5G networks has already raised enough of hackles among the NATO countries.
It is in the backdrop of these developments that the post-Corona scenario must be viewed. The Chinese are making a quick economic revival with heavy investments while other nations are still reeling under the virus onslaught. This coupled with China’s outreach programme for medical and humanitarian aid are bound to pay it handsome dividends. For the decades to follow, the next few months are going to be crucial for politics, economy, diplomacy and the world order.
(Writer: KK Paul; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Apart from raising doubts about the benefits of a global village another major impact of the Coronavirus is the fact that it is challenging and redefining the world order as we know it
The spread of the deadly Coronavirus through human-to-human transmission and the growing number of fatalities is giving birth to all kinds of conspiracy theories, blame games and racism. However, the growing preference for isolation, erection of walls, closing of boundries, restrictions on travel and tourism is also exhibiting that the world is no longer a global village and we are now divided into numerous Google villages.
The ills of globalisation and relative interdependence are visible in the acute dearth of protective gear for fighting the contagion, even in the mightiest of all countries, the US. Since China is the largest producer of protective gear like masks, ventilators, respirators, protective suits and testing kits, America’s helplessness and dependence on China, which controls 95 per cent of the US market for the supply of these kits is easily understandable. This is a warning sign for not just the global super power but also for other nations that they need to reduce such dependence and start production of everything, which used to be outsourced for manufacturing to China or other countries. The Coronavirus is shaping up to be an enormous stress test for globalisation. As critical supply chains break down, nations hoard medical supplies and limit travel, the crisis is forcing a major reevaluation of the interconnected global economy. Not only has globalisation allowed for the rapid spread of contagious disease but it has fostered deep interdependence between firms and nations that makes them more vulnerable to unexpected shocks. Now, firms and nations alike are discovering just how vulnerable they are.
Another major impact of the Coronavirus is the fact that it is challenging and redefining the world order as we know it. The inability of the US to quickly control the spread of this virus and save the lives of its citizens has exposed the weakness and lack of vision of the US leadership in taking stock of the situation and providing the much-needed guidance to the administration. As a result, the number of casualties today in the country has crossed the number of deaths in China, where the whole nightmare began.
The status of the US as a global leader has been built not just on wealth and power but also, and just as important, on the legitimacy that flows from its domestic governance, provision of global public goods and the ability and willingness to muster and coordinate a global response to crises. The Coronavirus pandemic is testing all three elements of US leadership and so far Washington is failing the test.
On the other hand, as this deadly virus travelled from China’s Whuan province to virtually every part of the globe, therefore, primarily China is being considered the villain by the world. This is also in major part due to the fact that it concealed the information about the contagion for a long time. Had it informed the global village in time, the precautions which are being taken now could have been taken earlier and the large- scale spread of the virus could have been averted.
At present, the concerns about the dominance of the world order through economics, expansion of trade, commerce and route connectivity have taken a back seat and the control of the pandemic has taken a front seat. Though by locking down Wuhan province through draconian measures, China succeeded in containing the spread of the outbreak to other parts of the country, hiding the news of the contagion it was unable to prevent its spread to the rest of the world. Apart from the 42,352 people across the globe who have died because of the Coronavirus, the other big casualty of the pandemic is the global village-based world order, as now every country has sealed its borders and even flights have been grounded for now. Currently, the only thing that is keeping the world united and linked is the internet as the Google village is available for accessing and exchanging information and ideas.
After being castigated and ostracized by the world community for hiding and spreading the virus globally, the Chinese President sought India’s support to confront its isolation and face the world bravely. Even in the time of a crisis China has not forgotten its world-domination ambitions and in order to show its greatness and maintainin its status as a major power on the world stage, as a goodwill gesture China is willing to share its experiences and strategy with India.
As the US fumbles around, China is moving quickly and adeptly to take advantage of the opening created by Trump’s mistakes, filling the vacuum to position itself as the global leader in the response to a major crisis. It is working to tout its own system, provide material assistance to other countries, and even organise other Governments. But the world community, including the US, is not going to forget what China has done and how Beijing is using this opportunity to increase its military and economic might by offering to supply the medical necessities to Europe and the US.
Beijing’s move to block the recently-called United Nations Security Council meet on the Coronavirus pandemic also indicates that China is aspiring hard to maintain its image of a generous leader of the world ready to help with loans and equipment. Chinese attempts clearly hint that this pandemic will surely change the global scenario but the power game will remain unhampered because China, even in the wake of the crisis, is not leaving any stone unturned to make its presence felt in the Indo-Pacific.
Although it was felt that the COVID-19 outbreak would halt China’s overseas investments, interestingly the signals coming from China right now indicate that it is not likely to stop overseas investment in its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project and will also keep on exploring the possibility of grabbing new markets for its goods, commodities and investments. Because, through this it can fill the power gap and make its presence and power felt in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in the BRI countries.
According to reports, recently Chinese military aircraft carried out anti-submarine drills in the contested South China Sea (SCS), to respond to patrols by US warships, which suggests that Coronavirus or no Coronavirus, China is not going to mend its ways and tone down its assertiveness and leave any opportunity to exhibit its power politics. The claims of controlling the COVID-19 in Whuan have made it more aggressive than ever. Even though the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) activities on the Tibetan plateau have reduced due to the outbreak, PLA intrusions were recently reported from Naku-la, south of the watershed in Northern Sikkim, a border said to be “settled” by China.
In view of China’s obvious moves for domination, most of the countries including the World Health Organisation are looking at the other major power in the region, India’s response and efforts to confront this challenge with interest and anxiety.
If this crisis is not handled carefully by India the death toll and the number of sick people would be unimaginable and would take the country back by decades, something which would not be in favour of New Delhi and its allies as they look to India to stop China’s march.
In this context it would be appropriate to highlight that while in the domestic sector India is taking all necessary steps to contain the outbreak, on the other hand regionally and internationally also India is at the forefront of the fight against Coronavirus.
The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s call for cooperation to fight the pandemic to the SAARC countries, places the nation at the front and centre of the fight against the pandemic in the region and gives it a place at the global power high table. With the creation of the $10 million SAARC Emergency Fund to fight Covid-19, India has also supplied testing equipment and sanitisers to Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. In a recent meeting the G-20 group also pledged to introduce $5 trillion into the global economy to blunt the affect of the virus. Prime Minister Modi has also advocated the need for developing a new crisis management protocol to deal with global health issues, which indicates patient and good leadership and signals India’s effective presence in the global power scenario. The seriousness and gravity shown by the Indian leadership and appeals to people for restraint and determination are a great example of ethical leadership in the time of a crisis. The well-timed lockdown and appeals by the leadership for social isolation are allowing all of us to forget the concept of global village and just turn into Google village with limited exposure to people but unlimited contacts for our well-being.
(Writer: Annpurna Nautiyal; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The Opposition is within its rights to ask questions about the Government’s readiness and the Government, too, is duty-bound to remain accountable. Both should keep aside their political agenda as the priority is dealing with the pandemic
Is the Opposition supporting the Narendra Modi Government’s efforts to contain the Coronavirus pandemic in the country? Is the Government doing enough?
One should not raise eyebrows if the Opposition parties in the country do not praise the Union Government’s efforts though they are forced to give support reluctantly. Even in the United States (US) despite the pandemic outbreak and the Government’s efforts to combat it, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accused President Donald Trump of “playing politics” with the virus outbreak to which the latter responded by calling her “incompetent.” The Speaker hit back saying, “Lives are at stake. This is not a time for name-calling or playing politics.” What both said applies to Indian politicians also.
While Prime Minister Modi has shown his leadership qualities by persuading the people to observe a one-day “Janta (people) curfew” and has successfully taken it forward by putting the entire country under a 21-day official lockdown, the Opposition thinks that the Government is not doing enough.
This was evident during the curtailed Parliament session when the Opposition raised questions on the Government’s tackling of the pandemic. In fact, even running the session became difficult as the Opposition wanted it to be curtailed in view of the outbreak and the social distancing that the Government was advocating for the public. The Opposition accused the Modi Government of ignoring the threat that the Coronavirus posed to the health of the Members of Parliament and running the House in order to install a BJP Government in Madhya Pradesh.
How has the Congress, the main Opposition party dealt with the issue? While the party has been careful to avoid any antagonistic public posture at a time when the nation faces a war- like situation, it has stressed certain key issues. Though delayed, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Modi, pledging her party’s support to the national lockdown, adding that she also had certain suggestions.
In her letter, Gandhi had urged the Centre to consider announcing sector-wise relief packages, including tax breaks, interest subvention, deferment of liability, extra measures for migrant labourers and the unorganised sector workers.
Sonia has also asked the Congress chief ministers to gear up for the situation and the Congress has activated its All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretaries, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) presidents, legislature party leaders and heads of frontal organisations to help people.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who was critical Modi’s way of handling the pandemic, on March 28 pledged his personal support to the Prime Minister in a letter but also appealed for a nuanced approach. He urged the PM to come up with a safety net for the poor and a road map with a time-frame.
Congress leaders, who spoke in a shriller voice earlier, now speak in a muted tone. They are saying, “We are with you but…!” Within hours of Rahul Gandhi declaring his support, party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi came out with a scathing criticism of the lockdown and the plight of about one crore migrant workers. “You have heightened the nerves of the people of this nation because of your unpreparedness,” he said. It is the same with other Opposition leaders, be it Mamata Banerjee, Pinarayi Vijayan, Sitaram Yechuri, Mayawati or D Raja. The BJP, however, has geared up its machinery along with the full support of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
What is heartening is that the State Governments and the Centre are working in tandem in tackling the pandemic. Cooperation between the Centre and the States fortunately continues at the official level and health is one such area where States have never withheld their cooperation. Interestingly, it is the regional parties and leaders who have taken the lead in the fight against the Coronavirus. Most non–BJP ruled States supported the “Janta curfew.” Chief Ministers like Naveen Patnaik, KC Rao, Jagan Mohan Reddy, E Palaniswami and Arvind Kejriwal have responded positively to Modi’s initiatives. These regional satraps have come up with their own relief measures. While, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a Rs 200-crore fund to tackle the disease, Kerala’s Vijayan has announced a Rs 2,000 crore financial aid plan. At the State level, too, the Opposition parties in their respective regions have offered to work with the Government, except for a few States like Tamil Nadu.
All this goes to show that the collective political will that is needed to deal with a critical stage in the transmission of the virus, is by and large there in the country. India is facing an unprecedented challenge, which affects each State, each economic sector, each business and the health of each family. What do the people of India want? They are looking to a genuine leadership both from the Government and the Opposition. The Opposition, too, has the responsibility to come up with policy options and the Government must also listen to it. Together, they should be able to cope with the unprecedented pandemic. Both should not fail the people at a time like this. Indeed the Opposition is within its rights to ask questions about the Government’s readiness and its response and the Government, too, is duty-bound to remain accountable. Both should keep aside their political agenda as the priority is dealing with the pandemic. Therefore the response should be reflected in political unity.
(Writer: Karan bhasin; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
It was because of organised testing that Kerala, a State with one of the best healthcare infrastructure, could effectively treat the patients infected with Coronavirus
In Kerala, god’s own lush green country, it is as real as it can be. Some students belonging to this State, studying in Hyderabad, were stranded at the Karnataka-Kerala border last week. They wanted to come back to their State but were stuck and in dire straits. One of them google “searched” for Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s number. This was at 1 am, post midnight. This student was desperate and was just trying her luck. The phone rang and guess who received the call? The Chief Minister himself. It is reported that Vijayan told the student not to worry (don’t worry child…) and that he would find a solution. In moments, she got the number of the top administrative functionaries in Wayanad and when they reached the slated spot, another official was waiting for the students with a vehicle to transport them safely back to their homes. Once they reached their destinations, the girl student called the Chief Minister back to thank him. Vijayan said that he was happy that they had reached safely and asked them to quarantine themselves.
Real-time stories, bordering on myths, have been circulating about Vijayan and his no-nonsense, simple and hard-working Health Minister, KK Shailja, the “teacher” who has openly said that her actions are determined by the advice of experts and scientists and practical and long-term solutions. The manner in which the issue of migrants and visitors, both inside and outside the State, has been addressed reflects just this. Thousands of Keralites work abroad, especially in the Gulf, and the State is a tourist hub with foreigners enjoying its dense green picturesque landscapes, its endless backwaters and safe scenic towns as also its vast coastal regions and sunny beaches.
As tens and thousands of migrant workers and the poor thronged the highways in Delhi and its neighbourhood, mostly heading towards Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Modi has all but collapsed in the capital and the Hindi heartland. There are now genuine fears that these workers, having travelled in congested spaces, without any healthcare safety, often hungry and penniless, might lead to a major medical crisis in the rural hinterland, which apparently has remained insulated from the epidemic/pandemic.
This would be disastrous and lead to a total failure of the laxman rekha drawn by the Prime Minister in his 8 pm television address to the nation or his doctrine of “stay at home” to maintain “physical/social” distancing in a bid to stop the pandemic from entering Stage-III and, thus, become viral and fatal. This would also jeopardise the efforts of States like Kerala and West Bengal, which have countered the crisis with effective, all-round social security, healthcare and administrative measures.
So how did Kerala tackle the migration crisis? First, much before the country took notice, as early as in March, it had put up health desks at airports to screen passengers coming from abroad. Foreigners cooperated, no one was harassed. Testing and quarantine became a must even as hospitals and isolation centres were kept ready. Even while doctors and nurses and other hospital staff were
given all the facilities at Government hospitals, private ones were sounded off by the district administration to be ready for patients and that, too, free of cost.
If one person tested positive, all his/her contacts were tested, too. All domestic travellers were asked to follow self-quarantine, which they dutifully followed. Concerted counselling over the phone and through inter-personal contact was given to people under isolation or those undergoing treatment. Indeed, it was because of organised testing that Kerala, a State with one of the best healthcare infrastructure, could effectively treat the patients infected with the virus. As their numbers grew, they were quickly identified, given treatment and quarantined. None like Bollywood actor Kanika Kapoor hid their travel history either in Kerala or in West Bengal.
All entry points for railways and buses were thoroughly checked. This was an arduous task but medical teams and volunteers went from compartment to compartment checking passengers and testing them. All those travellers taking a bus went through a similar process. All of this was done with immense dignity, patience and efficiency and as fast as it could be done.
There are around 5,000 fully-equipped shelters in Kerala, which are now catering to around two lakh migrant workers. Not a single labour has been allowed to move out. They all seem to be content to stay at their new “homes.” Significantly, the Government prefers to term them “guest workers,” giving them the due dignity and respect they deserve.
Rations for three months have been provided. Their shelters are clean and sanitised. There is running water, soap, sanitisers and proper sanitation systems. Medical centres and counselling are available 24X7. Volunteers and State officials are always at hand. No wonder, the “guest workers” are happy and grateful. Apart from other measures, one of the most significant steps taken by the State Government is to announce social security schemes and financial package for them. The following steps are significant:
A special package of Rs 20,000 crore has been announced to overcome the COVID-19 threat. (Compare this with the Rs 15,000 crore package announced by the Prime Minister for the entire country). The financial package includes Rs 1,320 crore to disburse two-months welfare pension in advance; Rs 1,000 to families not eligible for other social welfare pensions; Rs 100 crore for free foodgrains to families in need; Rs 50 crore for subsidised meals at Rs 20 and a Rs 500 crore health package. Loans worth Rs 2,000 crore will be made available through the Kudumbashree scheme, a highly successful project accessible to the remotest region. A sum of Rs 2,000 crore has been earmarked for employment guarantee programmes. Further, all arrears will be cleared by the State Government by April, amounting to Rs 14,000 crore. Cinema hall owners have been given an entertainment tax reprieve.
The food issue was nipped in the bud with 1,000 food centres, restaurants and hotels offering free food to those in need and community kitchens were operational everywhere. Door-to-door food, too, was distributed. Significantly, as the Chief Minister reiterated in one of his candid press conferences (unlike the one held by Prime Minister) where he took all questions by the media and explained the finest details of the relief operations undertaken by his Government, those who are embarrassed or shy to ask for food, too, have been provided with the “secret” phone numbers. Food and other amenities will be delivered to them and they need not disclose their identity. This is truly democratic governance where the citizen is given the utmost dignity by the Government.
Free prepaid recharge has been provided to those under observation. The students’ wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has been manufacturing sanitisers and distributing them to the public. Civil society and women’s groups have been roped in to provide relief. District administrations are working with ward and local level representatives, including the panchayats. Hence, even in a centralised system, the process of implementation is totally decentralised, easily accessible and efficient.
The current mission is to create a huge volunteer force. Former doctors have been asked to join the healthcare system again. Be it healthcare or drastic measures taken during natural catastrophes like massive floods or even during the spread of Nipah virus, the people of Kerala and its Government have galvanised resources, communities, religious institutions, the youth, women and students repeatedly and successively to collectively combat the crisis at the most invisible grassroots terrain. That is why, yet again, the State seems to be on a strong and solid footing, even as the virus seeks to damage and ravage the world.
(Writer: Acamit Sengupta; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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