There was no migrant workers’ crisis in Kolkata, in the industrial areas, or in the rest of Bengal, which has been peaceful unlike the Hindi heartland
Bengalis and fish and how can this classical ode to joy fall apart? No way! Bengalis and mishti (sweets). How can they ever be brutally separated, even in a nationwide lockdown, even while diabetes is itself an epidemic in Bengal, especially Kolkata?
Indeed, it’s like saying how can the average middle class Bengali bhodrolok (genteel folk) survive without his daily dose of Boroline, Digene/Gelusil and Ananda Bazaar Patrika, to use a hackneyed cliché once again. But, clichés, despite being repetitive, are life-affirming too. They tell you that the world has not changed and what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow. Not even Kerala, though they love Bengal out there, I tell you.
Starting the working day for a working Bengali is a precious ritual. Going out with a jhola (bag) to the fish market early morning is a favourite daily one. Haggling is an eternal joy. A thin fish curry with black cumin and rice and the whole day is made. Only jhaal moori at lunch time might break this daily fulfillment.
It is fulfilling truly and nourishing, too. And the food has nothing to do with calories hereafter. Often it is kachori (crispy savoury snack) in the morning from the nearest Sharma loochir dukaan, often stuffed with motor shooti (green peas) and a thin potato curry. As it is phoochka in the night, especially for women.
So, at least, two things have not changed in the eternally outgoing “City of Joy”, where “ghore-baire” is a beautiful obsession and a routine dilemma. One, the fish markets are open in many places. And I am told by reliable sources that the mishti shops, now open from 12 noon to four in the evening, might get a four hour additional bonus.
If Kolkata is the microcosm of the unfinished painting of the Bengali canvas, it seemingly hates the lockdown. Who does not? The urge to go out is as tangible as the crowd in the fish markets, even now, which are reportedly not so sanitised or following the highest of health standards. And, yet, the death toll is just about seven. How come?
And that, too, is a kind of hidden and expressed controversy. Unlike, surprisingly, in Uttar Pradesh (UP), (where the graph might seem to be flattening like Kerala, where they have literally blocked the virus now, especially in Thrissur, Kottayam and Idukki). There is a lack of testing, health infrastructure, poor safety condition of doctors, nurses and health workers, abysmal hospitals in UP, too, but a partially totalitarian regime calls the disciplinary shots. Nobody even knows what the tens of thousands of workers are going through in the small towns or the rural hinterland of UP, or, if the deadly virus is spreading out there.
However, in Kolkata, or Bengal, the graph on the death toll, as much as selective or mass testing is too low. Sources say that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been efficient, on the spot, on the dot, and she started early, even though not as early as Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala. That she has no faith in the Central laboratories with their “bureaucratic paraphernalia”, not in the unfulfilled promises of help from Delhi. For long, her Government has complained of lack of testing kits and medical equipment for doctors and nurses, saying that Delhi simply seemed too reluctant or late in response.
It is no wonder then that the Union Home Ministry sending a Central team to Bengal, among other States, to make “on-the-spot assessments” on the Covid-19 crisis has not gone down well with the fiercely independent leader. In her characteristic manner, Mamata has strongly protested against this unilateral move which goes against the federal spirit, even as the graph in Bengal just cannot be compared to the serious situation in many other States.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister has reiterated that the Inter-Ministerial Central Team’s (IMCT) visit to several districts — Kolkata, Howrah, 24 Parganas North, Medinipur East, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling — amounted to a “unilateral action” by Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“I am sure you will kindly agree that such unilateral action on the part of the Central Government is not desirable at all, especially in the backdrop when both Central and State Governments are working together relentlessly round-the-clock to contain the covid-19 crisis,” Mamata said in the letter.
Meanwhile, the the Calcutta High Court last week asked the West Bengal Government to go on a “war footing on the Covid-19 tests” and that it should follow the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR and World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
Till now, in this entire process, Mamata’s total focus has been on the prestigious Calcutta Medical College and other State and private institutions, for medical care. Besides, she has been fast in her crisis management. A stadium in Howrah was converted into a fully-equipped hospital with 1,000 beds. A private high-rise building in post-modern Rajarhaat was turned into another makeshift hospital. Private hospitals were asked to cooperate. And the lockdown, sensitively done, was fully implemented.
There was no migrant workers’ crisis in Kolkata, in the industrial areas, or in the rest of Bengal, which has been peaceful unlike the Hindi heartland. She announced quickly that no one will go hungry till September. There was no mass migration nor starvation on the streets and slums. Food rations were given and is being given, to all those who seek it with a ration card, for free and with dignity. Those who don’t have ration cards or official documents can also avail of it with a temporary slip. Cooked food is being given to those who can’t cook food. Even police stations are being organised to cook food and distribute to people who are going hungry.
An activist, who works in the red light area in Kolkata, told this reporter that not one among the 10,000 residents in the area is going hungry. Those who can’t cook are being given cooked food. Even in poor villages of Purulia, Midnapore and so on, the problem of hunger has been taken care of with local official networks. “No one is really going hungry in Kolkata and Bengal, that I can assure you,” he said and he is no Mamata supporter.
There are reports of hunger stalking in the eternally-starving tea gardens of North Bengal, which have seen stark unemployment, destitution and starvation deaths in the past. Civil society initiatives are desperately working on the ground and a lot of food distribution is happening through the Trinamool Congress local networks. “It’s a difficult and tragic situation out here. The problem is not only perennial out here, it is kind of become intensified after the lockdown,” said a Jadavpur University student from Cooch Behar on the border of Bangladesh, where the “chitmahals”, too, are facing longstanding problems.
“Chitmahals” are villages which lived in a twilight zone after Partition in East Pakistan and India and later after the formation of Bangladesh. They were citizens of no man’s land and had no rights, no identity, no citizenship of any country. Recently, many of them have gone over to Bangladesh and others have been allocated to India, though the borderlines are thin and blurring. And, yet, their economic and social condition remains abysmal.
There have been recent reports of new hotspots of the epidemic in Kolkata, including in the slums. Kolkata, Howrah, East Medinipur and the North 24 Parganas have been declared sensitive zones. Eight districts have been declared as possible hotspots: Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Hooghly, Nadia, West Burdwan, West Medinipur, the South 24 Parganas and Darjeeling. New areas are being marked.
Meanwhile, civil society groups, especially students, have been working on the ground with great commitment. Students, research scholars and the alumni of Jadavpur University, for instance, are distributing sanitisers, rations and cooked food, which they themselves cook in the campus. They distribute it all over Kolkata, to cops, health workers, doctors, shopkeepers, vegetable vendors and slums.
“We are short of money, almost always. The alumni is helping. But we need more help,” said a research scholar.
However, life is like this only, as the story goes. Kolkata and Bengal are observing the lockdown with discipline and patience. The Government is in control. And while Rabindra Sangeet (music) and Western music still floats in the bylanes, people are waiting for a new life after the lockdown ends.
Tomaar holo shuru, aamar holo shaara, (it’s your beginning, it’s my end…) as the eternally beautiful Robi Thakur song goes.
(Writer: Amit Sengupta; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
In the weeks after the shutdown, only 285 million people were working in the country as against the 404 million employed before the pandemic struck
Globally, more than 25 million jobs would be threatened due to the spread of the Coronavirus. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that four out of five people (81 per cent) in the global workforce of 3.3 billion are currently affected by full or partial workplace closure. The US, UK, Canada and most of the European and Asian countries have begun to register huge job losses, leading to a significant rise in their unemployment rates. The ILO, in its report COVID-19 and the world of work: Updated estimates and analysis, describes COVID-19 as the “worst global crisis since World War-II.”
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva says the world is faced with the worst economic crisis since the “Great Depression” of the 1930s.
Most of the world’s informal workers, who account for 61 per cent of the global workforce or two billion people, are from developing countries and they would be the worst-affected in this scenario. There are severe concerns for low-paid and low-skilled informal workers in low and middle-income countries, where the industries and services have a high proportion of such workers as they lack any social protection or safety net. As per the ILO report, sectors such as food, retail, wholesale, business services, construction and manufacturing have experienced falling production and losses in employment hours and numbers. Combining 1.25 billion workers employed in these sectors, over one-third (37.5 per cent) of the global workers are at high risk.
The Indian economy, especially the informal or unorganised sector, has been witnessing an unprecedented slowdown in recent months. This scenario has been aggravated by the lockdowns imposed by the Government to stem the spread of the Coronavirus.
Such has been the impact of the shutdown on the employment scenario in the country that a report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) says that in the weeks after the lockdown, only 28 per cent or 285 million people were working out of the total working-age population of 1,003 million, which was way lower than the corresponding figure of 40 per cent or 404 million workers before the pandemic struck.
This indicates that in the first two weeks of the lockdown, around 119 million workers lost their jobs in the country. The CMIE report also indicates a significant increase in the unemployment rate in March, which at 8.7 per cent is way higher than the Government’s unemployment estimate of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18. Understandably, these numbers indicate that the current nationwide lockdown has been the biggest job-destroyer ever in the history of the country. However, these estimates only reveal the impact on employment during the lockdown period and should not be considered a permanent loss of livelihoods. Many of them would be able to get back into the saddle after the lockdown is over and economic activity starts picking up again.
According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), 2017-18, about 90 per cent or 419 million people are engaged in the informal sector, out of the total 465 million workers, in the country. The magnitude of informal workers in the rural areas at 95 per cent is much more than it is in urban areas at 80 per cent. This is primarily because 62 per cent of informal workers are engaged in agricultural activities in rural areas as against eight per cent in urban areas. This will have a lesser impact on their livelihood as against those 92 per cent informal workers who are engaged in urban areas in non-farm sectors. It is these estimated 419 million informal workers who are at the risk of losing their livelihood and falling into deeper poverty.
The analysis from the unit record data of the PLFS 2017-18 shows that in urban areas, about 93 million informal workers are involved in five sectors that are most affected, namely, manufacturing (28 million); trade, hotel and restaurant (32 million); construction (15 million); transport, storage and communications (11 million); and finance, business and real estate (seven million). As many as 50 per cent of these informal workers are engaged in self-employment, 20 per cent are casual workers or daily wagers and 30 per cent are salaried or contract workers without any social safety net. Due to the lockdown, all economic activities (with the exception of essential and emergency services) related to physical labour at workplaces are banned. Therefore, about 93 million urban informal workers in these five sectors have been most hit. This is the largest informal sector worker group next only to agriculture and allied activities and constitutes the size of populations greater than most of the countries in the world like the UK, Australia, Japan and so on.
Besides these informal workers, there are many people involved in the organised sector (unregistered firms) who may be not jobless at present but could find themselves without a job after the lockdown period is over if enterprises refuse to take them back. Many self-employed people like street vendors and other small entrepreneurs may not be left with the capital to restart their businesses and many may not return from their native places.
Of these, the casual workers are the most vulnerable due to the unpredictable nature of their work and daily-wage payments, which are highest in the construction sector. So, all these regular salaried or contractual employees, those who are currently not working, and skilled workers and petty shopkeepers, who may be sitting idle at home or have returned to their native places or staying in shelter homes, may not be able to recover their jobs once the lockdown period is over.
The only silver lining in this dark job scenario is the fact that the pandemic has created a boom for the gig economy, (such as online delivery services) and highly-skilled professionals and technology interface sectors. However, their contribution to the workforce is estimated to be too minimal to substantially offset the overall losses in jobs in the country. At the end of the lockdown, it is estimated that less than one-tenth of the workforce, those in regular salaried jobs, in essential services and businesses will continue to receive their regular income. There will be further lay-offs or trims in salaries or perks.
Going forward many Government employees’ salaries could be revised downwards and in the private sector, adjustments would be done owing to non-revenue generation. However, some sectors like essential commodities supplies, insurance, automobile and healthcare would actually see a rise in demand and revenue, resulting in hikes in remuneration.
So, the Government today has the dual challenge of providing immediate assistance to informal workers, who have lost their jobs and to those who are already unemployed and are looking for jobs. Apart from assisting informal workers, who are migrants, their families need to be considered, as they await the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana 2.0 to be rolled out soon. However, the big drawback is that there is no proper national level registry for people involved in informal jobs or sectors, such as vegetable vendors, construction workers, rickshaw pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers, temporary staff and so on. There is an urgent need for these registries to be instituted and updated, using latest digital technologies and innovations, along with a dynamic unemployment registry to provide direct economic (universal basic income), health (universal coverage) and other necessary contingency protection and security support. The Centre must fast-track the payment of delayed payments to each public and private enterprise in this time of crisis. Further, the utility bills of the most vulnerable must also be paid for by it.
Also, to ensure that each ward (84,420 in 4,378 cities) and each Gram Panchayat (2,62,734 in 6,975 blocks and 706 districts) are fully equipped to serve the populace, each of them must be provided with emergency funds from the existing schemes like the Swachh Bharat Mission and Jal Jeevan Mission. The Government must join forces with its resilient private sector, non-profits, citizens and faith institutions willing to steer through these turbulent times.
In totality, in the existing relief and monetary aid, the masses have been left out from the Government’s care, which is its primary duty. This shortcoming must be plugged as soon as possible and comprehensive, pan-sectoral reforms for the 21st Century must be undertaken to create the New India of our dreams.
(Writer: Balwant mehta, Arjun kumar ; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
With a history of curing big diseases, research in Ganga’s water can unlock a door to the value of bacteriophage in our ancient river systems and spur fresh conservation efforts
Not even a hundred years ago, the water of the Ganga river contained the “Ninja virus.” Ninja, as we all know, means warrior. Scientists call them bacteriophages and the people of India call it Gangtva.
Gangtva is the main element of the Ganga due to which the water of the river never gets spoilt even if it is kept for months.
There was a time when this bacteriophage was found in four major rivers of the world but over the centuries, due to the material pursuits of mankind, the remaining three rivers and their civilisations vanished. Until about 20 years ago, this Ninja virus was present in the six tributaries of the Ganga. Then we built a dam named Tehri and diverted the confluence of two streams, the Bhagirathi and the Bhilangana, into the lake made for the dam.
The result was that the bacteriophage present here got destroyed in the still water of the lake. Significantly, Gangtva still exists in the Bhagirathi upstream.
This element is also found in the Alaknanda, Mandakini and Pinder rivers. But it has reduced so much in its strength that its capacity to clean the dirty water has become ineffective. And yet again, the reason for this change is the stagnation of the river water.
Nevertheless, some of the historical facts that still make us proud of the Ganga are that Mughal emperor Akbar used to drink Ganga water only and the British used to carry the Ganga water in vats during their voyages because it did not go bad for months. However, in an increasingly scientific world, the scientific aspects of this water have not been discussed too often.
In the shadow of the Coronavirus, we must try to understand its scientific side as well.
Over a hundred years ago, there was a major outbreak of the dreaded cholera in the States of Bihar and Bengal. Such was the fear of the disease at that time (because it was highly infectious and much like the COVID-19 of today, they did not have an effective cure for it), that people thought they would catch the disease if they touched the corpse.
People were throwing corpses by the thousands into the Ganga as no one was willing to cremate them out of fear of contracting cholera.
At that time, a British scientist Hakins, who was doing research in India, feared that cholera would spread everywhere along the banks of the Ganga river. But after a while he noticed that nothing of this sort had happened.
Intrigued by this phenomenon, he researched and found that cholera bacteria could not survive in the Ganga water and something was destroying it.
As this research progressed, it was found that even the bacteria of dysentery, meningitis, tuberculosis and severe diseases could not survive in the water of the Ganga.
This research was going on to reconstruct the medical importance of Ganga but before it ended, the world saw the invention of antibiotics, which turned out to be the cure for most diseases known to man at that time. This magical discovery pushed back the research work on the Ganga water. Ironically, over the ages, people developed antibiotic resistance due to its overuse and senseless self-medication by people. As a result, we increased the doses of antibiotic that we consume and accordingly the disease-causing bacteria also increased its strength. Consequently, scientists all around world are facing the biggest challenge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Now scientists and doctors are once again looking towards the Ganga. But today’s sad truth is that the Ganga water around Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna and Kolkata has not been able to kill any bacteria. On the contrary, some new and dangerous findings are coming out from areas around Kanpur.
Scientists from the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, IITR, Lucknow, on the basis of their experiments on the Ganga water, claim that they have found a bad bacteria, which is responsible for producing diarrhoea, blood dysentery and typhoid. And this bacteria is rapidly growing in the water from Bithur to Shuklaganj in Kanpur.
But these findings are in areas where the water is most polluted and stagnant.
Devendra Swarup Bhargava, a scientist associated with IIT Roorkee, has researched that Ganga’s Gangtva still exists and is present in its foothills. He said that the Ganga has the ability to absorb oxygen. Some research has also found that bacteriophages are also effective on some viruses.
Dr Bhargava wanted to do research on the virus itself but he was not supported by the Government in this effort.
Regarding the Coronavirus, Dr Bhargava claims that chlorine is most capable of protecting humans against this virus. Therefore, its use should be increased at the Government level. The Institute of Microbial Studies, in its research on the Ganga water at Rudraprayag and Devprayag, found that 17 types of viruses were found in the water here, which are capable of killing bad bacteria. However, the water in these places is also not considered completely pure. The National Environmental Research Institute (NEERI) did huge research on the capabilities of Ganga water, which found that it has the potential to kill 20 diseases, but this report was not allowed to be published under pressure from antibiotic companies and the scientists who were involved in the research had to give it up.
The Corona crisis is a clear indication that in future, too, mankind could face many unknown bacteria and viruses. We would not even know what they are and how many would be deadly. Investment on virus research is needed today.
Nature has honoured us with the most magnificent river on Earth and we could not even handle it. All the scientists working in this field believe that the Ganga will enable us to fight every biological battle if we just let it flow.
When the Corona crisis has blown the lid over assorted religious televangelists and godmen, who claimed to have a panacea for all ills, there are communities that have set examples
The Coronavirus crisis has inadvertently blown the lid over assorted religious televangelists, godmen and “cure-all” religious leaders, who claimed to have a panacea for all ills, both physical and even political. These religiously-loaded hucksters successfully peddled their “spirituality” for financial gratification via medicaments, groceries and “ancient formula.” This could guarantee remedy and protection from all known ills that still defied modern science. Their carefully curated garb and invocations afforded a semblance of a certain religious-cultural “type” that was rooted in a particular religious denomination. This was then harnessed via the gullible adherents of that religion/sect.
These charlatans routinely pooh-poohed modern science as a Western affliction. They went so far as suggesting an “anti-national” slant for those who spurned their ideas. In the initial days of this debilitating Coronavirus, which still defies any cure anywhere in the world, these masqueraders held forth with their cavalier attitude and ostensible “solutions.” This to beat a hasty retreat as their purported “solutions” came a cropper for sheer ineffectiveness. Across the world, the purveyors of this religious-cultural “enterprise” created a constituency and “market” that came unmistakably wrapped in legitimacy-seeking strains of religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism, among others. These practitioners also did a great disservice to their parent religions as they flitted between commerce and puritanism. Along with willing politicians, they contributed significantly to polarising societies.
However, a significant part of society did remain sceptical of such divisive and commercial religiosity and, instead, preferred a more “inclusive”, “philosophical”, “cultural” and “spiritual” side of religious nuance, one that invariably always insisted on humanity, peace and consideration for the “other.” Even in countries like Pakistan that are caught in the vortex of religious extremism, there are examples like that of late Abdul Sattar Edhi, who gave his life for human dignity beyond the narrow confines of organised religion. Edhi’s purpose in life was to bathe and bury thousands of unclaimed bodies without discriminating on the basis of religion, gender or race. The noble soul said, “No religion is higher than humanity.” Such selfless acts in such turbulent times give the society and, indeed, the religion, their soul. Every religious order and nation has its own celebrated or unsung heroes, who keep the true faith and ensure that it does not get discredited due to acts of some extremist mullahs, priests, pandits or any other godmen, who preach a toxic lesson of “divide”, monopoly-on-truth and supremacism.
The Sikh community, in particular, has distinguished itself across the world with its sense of community service, piety and altruism, especially in difficult times. Be it during the devastating Australian bushfires or the horrific communal riots in Delhi, the reassuring sight of the Sikh community rising to the occasion and setting up makeshift langars, ferrying injured people to the hospitals and even helping rebuild the destroyed sites of victims is now a usual sight. Importantly, these aid initiatives of the Sikh community tend to prop up impromptu under the aegis of either the local gurudwara in the community or through a purely voluntary organisation of Sikh members in the area.
For them, the religious or racial identity of the victim is not relevant to extend support to the most vulnerable. The genesis of this culture is reposed in one of the three pillars of Guru Nanak’s teachings ie, Vand Chhako, which necessitates sharing and consuming together as a community. The extended implication is to help those who are in dire need of help.
While almost all religions have the same underlying tenets and message of universal brotherhood and compassion, a lot of the practical aspect of the same has either been twisted by zealous clergy or the message remains confined within the texts. However, as a more modern religion with a reformist agenda, Sikhism has almost internalised certain attributes of daily living that have given the modern-day community the ability to punch above its weight in terms of contribution to the society and the nation.
The revered concepts of sewa (selfless service for the benefit of others) and charhdi kala (mental state of eternal joy and optimism) have given the community a unique identity and disposition in its own eyes, one that it is almost blasphemous to not live up to that exacting standard. The famous saying of never seeing a Sikh beggar is attributable to that sense of fraternal progress and hard work that disdains success at the cost of others. Above all, a Sikh is a quintessential warrior, who is given to defend his faith with his own life — be it in Saraghari, Mesopotamia or in Kargil — the ingrained martial outlook has appropriated the finest codes of soldiering and, therefore, its noblest instincts.
The essential difference has been the ability of the Sikhs to cheerfully assimilate into multicultural milieus without reneging on their own faith and yet, integrating and enriching the diversity of the land with unmatched hard work and selfless contributions in places as far-flung as in Canada, Australia to Kenya.
Parsis are yet another community, whose contribution in nation-building, enterprise and philanthropy are unbelievable. In both cases, the genuine spirit and large-heartedness towards the “others,” as opposed to the narrow confines of their own religiosity and adherents, is what sets them apart. Gurudwaras — from New York to Delhi — are dishing out meals for the homeless and shelterless in the midst of the Coronavirus lockdown, which has left hapless citizens abandoned to their own fate. In many ways, the essential lesson of this crisis has been the need to collaborate as this virus spares no religion, gender, race or nation. In such times, mankind and religious leaders must introspect the “walls of exclusivity” that they set up or intend to build. For, no “wall” offers any meaningful protection against global crises. Religious practices and practitioners that insist on such “walls” have been rendered useless. Mankind and religion may still survive only if societies encourage and celebrate diversity and respect for each other.
(Writer: Bhopinder Singh; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
If we want them back, there has to be a solid reason and incentive for them to do so. Confinement without food won’t do
Nothing much has changed for the about 20 lakh migrant labourers, who have been displaced by the lockdown to contain COVID-19, driven out of their site shacks following stoppage of economic activity and left to fend for themselves with little or no savings. Turfed out of an existence as they knew it, they began the long walk home, fleeing a disease that they had not asked for but were exposed to, and returning to their subsistence livelihoods in the village. At least, there they would eat whatever the land would yield and they would be safe. And then they were held in camps by different State authorities, sometimes subjected to disinfectant jet sprays and at other times treated like pests and looked at with suspicion even if they offered themselves up for any job at hand. Although the lockdown is now being opened in a staggered manner to enable farm activity and construction, the flight has meant that a chunk of these labourers would rather avail these income openings in their own villages and States than staying on in cramped camps. There is a reason why 1,500 labourers virtually revolted and gathered at a bus stand in Mumbai’s Bandra on Tuesday afternoon, demanding transport arrangements to go back to their native places. Their reasons are common to all inmates huddled at makeshift camps that came up in various States in fits and starts, rather than as part of a unified policy. For all tall claims by authorities, they have no food. The Food Corporation of India godowns may be full and we may have many times more reserves than are required but with the supply and distribution chain broken down and disproportionately functional in places, no rations have reached these camps. Most labourers do not get more than one meal a day at a time when body resistance and immunity are primary concerns. Media reports indicate some of them are surviving on just rice, starch and salt. Except for private charitable organisations and trusts, there is no directive that makes Government community kitchens mandatory and keeps them running. Makeshift common toilet facilities are another problem, causing hygiene related deficiencies and compounding the risk factor for contracting the disease. Besides, there are no work opportunities or any kind of stipend. Apart from spraying disinfectants, there is no medical camp that assesses their health condition, leave alone testing for the virus. So the impatience and frustration are just getting over the tipping point. And that anger is manifesting in furious ways, sometimes as an assault on policemen enforcing the lockdown, at other times looting and damaging trucks full of supplies or simply staging sit-ins, demanding that they be allowed to travel. A recent survey has shown that four out of 10 labourers did not have ration left even for one day and 90 per cent had lost their only source of income in three weeks.
There is also a latent emotional reason. Rejected overnight by cities that they have serviced over the years and their residents who went into self-protection mode, they now are angry and want life on their terms. And they want to be home, a basic human instinct when battling a threat to survival itself. Yes, the Government did tout the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana, that would ensure that each one would get an additional five kg rice or wheat per month. The problem with migrants is they do not have ration cards here but in their villages. Those who do cannot use them either, simply because they do not guarantee portability like an Aadhaar and can be used only at the address registered on them. Besides, clustered in unknown sites, they do not know how to access fair price shops. Perhaps food coupons would have been better. As it is, the mass exodus has affected the economy badly with agriculture and small industrial units lacking enough staff. Perhaps the States housing camps should prepare a roster of units going empty, farms in need of manpower and send labourers there for work after a health check-up and an assurance of a clean accommodation, howsoever temporary. If we want to keep them back, then there has to be a reason and incentive solid enough for them to do so. Factory and farm owners need to restore confidence like clearing their dues, something that most MSMEs cannot as the Government is yet to repay them. Different State Governments may have to issue several work permits to get them back and keep them safe in a post-Covid work environment. It would be prudent to let those, who have been allowed to drift away too far out, to return and let them avail of MGNREGA schemes in their native villages. It is time to revive the village economy and set up import substitution units to decentralise the growth engine and get small wheels moving and pick up speed. If a solution is not worked out soon, protests and clashes will become the new normal as the in-betweeners could fuel a social uprising. We have no right to decide for them from a position of privilege but must guarantee their productive worth instead.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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With nations across the world facing a critical test, India’s vibrant democracy and cultural generosity have created the synergy needed to face the challenges posed by COVID-19
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Some contours of the post-Coronavirus world are clearly visible. The nation State has regained legitimacy; the case for free flow of refugees/immigrants across a borderless world has collapsed; and Governments are facing the critical test of whether they can rally their people behind them to overcome the disease. India has performed remarkably well so far, though critics may carp that steps taken in February and March could have been taken earlier. Perhaps, or as Maurice Maeterlinck mused: “It is easy for those who are wise after the event to see what ought to have been done when time has brought full knowledge of what was really taking place” (Wisdom and Destiny).
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Doomsday accounts of Cassandras in reputed (sic) Western media and their acolytes in India have proved demonstrably false. India’s vibrant democracy and cultural generosity have created the synergy needed to face the challenges posed by COVID-19. Immediately after the lockdown was announced, civil society across the country rose as one to daily feed millions in every city, without discrimination; virtually every mandir, matham, gurdwara is at work. Five star hotels, dharamsalas and guest houses are providing quality accommodation for overworked medical staff. Even migrant labourers, who were misguided to leave Delhi or panicked and left other cities, have been provided for by citizens along the route.
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The Indian Railways imaginatively converted unused bogeys into quarantine facilities. Research labs, companies and young engineers are innovating to make ventilators, splitters for ventilators, fumigation chambers, protective gear for medical staff, smart stethoscopes and sanitiser trunks. Households are making and distributing masks to the needy. In Pakistan, NGOs are denying food and rations to poor Hindus and Christians suffering from Coronavirus, an act that has angered even its Muslim neighbours. Long suffering Balochistan complains of neglect; medical staff lack Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and quarantine facilities are disgraceful. The silence of the hyperactive international media is deafening.
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What makes India’s response unique is the Union Cabinet’s decision to reduce salary, allowances and pensions of all Members of Parliament (MPs) by a whopping 30 per cent for one year, with effect from April 1, 2020. The President, Vice President and Governors voluntarily took a similar pay cut as social responsibility. The MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) has been suspended for two years (2020-21 and 2021-22); all money saved will go to the Consolidated Fund of India. This scale of personal sacrifice is unmatched in the world so far; even children have been inspired to give their savings (for bicycle, birthday) to feed the needy.
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Most noteworthy is the speed with which India evacuated its stranded citizens, first from Wuhan (epicenter of the outbreak) and then from other cities: Milan and Rome; Tehran; Manila and Singapore. Of the 890 people evacuated from COVID-19-affected countries, 48 hailed from the Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China, the US, Israel, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa and Peru. They were evacuated at the request of their Governments.
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Special efforts were made to rescue 124 people quarantined on board the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship off the Japanese port of Yokohama, which included five nationals from Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa and Peru. India did offer to rescue Pakistani students from Wuhan but Islamabad rebuffed; seven Maldivians were evacuated.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video conference with leaders of the South Asian nations and launched a fund, with an initial contribution of $10 million, to check the spread of the pandemic in the region. India also responded to requests for emergency medical equipment from Bhutan and the Maldives. The country also participated in the G-20 video conference to discuss containment strategies and the economic impact of the outbreak, especially unemployment.
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Our country has already taken the lead in the struggle to develop a vaccine and on April 11, the Department of Science and Technology agreed to fund Seagull BioSolutions Pvt Ltd to develop Active Virosome Vaccine and Immunodiagnostic kits for COVID-19. As the largest manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), currently considered a life-saving drug for fighting Coronavirus, India is supplying it to 30 countries, including the US, and ramping up production for future needs. However, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) used to manufacture HCQ comes from China, which continued supplies throughout the crisis but in the coming days, we will have to revisit our domestic manufacturing strategy.
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The anti-tuberculosis BCG vaccine is emerging as another potential cure. India’s low death rate is said to be due to its universal immunisation schedule that includes BCG and a fair amount of population immunity to malaria. An ongoing research at the New York Institute of Technology shows that countries that discontinued the BCG vaccine (the US, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Iran and the UK) have proved very vulnerable to COVID-19.
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Comparisons are undesirable at this apocalyptic moment in human history but given the uncalled for attacks on India from some responsible quarters, some points are in order. India saw its first case of Coronavirus in the last week of January, around the same time as Europe and the US. After initially claiming the disease would go away on its own, US President Donald Trump said on March 30 that administration estimates show that COVID-19 could kill 100,000 to 200,000 people in America and such a toll would indicate that his administration has “done a very good job.” Imagine an Indian leader saying such a death toll is acceptable and surviving. At the time of writing, the world had 1,853,327 cases and 114,250 deaths; India had 9,152 cases and 308 mortalities.
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The pandemic has inflicted deep pain, disrupting incomes of those dependent on daily wages, creating havoc among small businesses and manufacturing units and triggering mass unemployment. Sadly, India is looking at an extension of the three-week lockdown imposed on March 25 because thousands gathered at the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in Nizamuddin, Delhi, including 280 from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan, to attend a meeting on March 13, defied prohibitory orders.
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Many left and spread the disease to other States and countries. Police escorted some to the airport after the March 22 janata curfew but they returned surreptitiously; the authorities were called only on March 30 after one person died. Thereafter, the behaviour of many in hospital has been unmentionable. Yet, Indian medical staff have served them with exemplary dedication and moral fortitude; all talk of the “sectoral targetting of a particular community” is invidious and deserves outright condemnation.
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(Writer: Sandhya Jain; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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Lockdown extension was inevitable but without specifics of a bailout, Modi’s speech remained anodyne
There is a visual that is far more telling than that of our pater familias Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking to his family of soldier citizens whose sacrifice, pain and toil he acknowledged. What was unacknowledged was the destitution of a man and street dogs licking the milk off the tarmac that had spilt from a tanker on a road in Agra. Nobody is disputing the fact that given India’s particularities — clustered populations, frail healthcare systems and a resource-starved management — a lockdown was necessary, even its extension. But this in the end is just a holding out operation. As the spiral of cases continues with increased testing, though it is not at the aggressive pace as is required, there is a spread that even lockdowns may not be able to prevent all too much. Yes, we have been slow in acting against the Coronavirus pandemic, we should have suspended international flights at least two weeks ago, the screening of passengers was limited to just thermal scans (the quarantine condition came much much later), the lockdown was imposed abruptly without preparation and because of still low testing, our disease burden is difficult to fathom. Although Modi countered such claims, all of which are by the way based on official data, saying India had acted much earlier than any other country, this is not the time for comparatives. There will be more deaths due to job losses, food riots and prolonged suspension of economic activity. This is anyway India’s lost year and lost opportunity. It is appreciable that Modi knows a nation ardently waits to listen to his words of wisdom in times such as these and he plays to the gallery. But he ought to have acted more like a father figure and given us an economic package that everybody was looking forward to, talked of a plan B of living with the virus till a vaccine is found, mentioned fund disbursement from all the PM’s relief funds that have been set up overnight to close gaps in the COVID-19 war room and given a directive on supply-chain management that would ensure the food reaches the beneficiaries it is intended for rather than being wasted on a hot summer day. In short, he had to be more specific than asking us to look after the old and the poor. The civil society knows what it has to do, the PM does not have to remind us of that but he needs to give us a direction that we do not know about.
The point is there was no mention of an increased GDP allocation to aid liquidity and working capital for industries that have already gone under. Other countries have done it and some experts have even suggested borrowings. Although the Opposition Congress doesn’t have much political or emotional heft now, it did raise the right questions about “targetted monetary injections; Keynesian spending, loosening the FMRB and so on.” Also, by saying that districts that do well in containing the spread might see lockdown relaxation from April 20, Modi spelt out no plan for those that are worst-hit. Are people living here to be condemned for their geographical choice or are they to be tested aggressively, treated and the infection-free made to sign up for zonal work permits with given protocols? But there was no such assurance or even interest for those locked out indefinitely. They almost seemed like being a test subject under surveillance in China. While rural harvesting and agricultural work have been resumed in places, industrial units and infrastructure projects need to be started in uninfected areas immediately. Zoning and phasing production with certified staff need to start as well. You may hold fleeing migrant labourers and daily wage earners in camps but things are not so welfarist there either. There are complaints of inadequate rations, cramped conditions and common toilets which they want to escape in the absence of gainful employment. They would rather be healthy in the subsistence economy of their village homes than risk it in alien cities and towns that were the first to turn them out. Job losses are not only about the unorganised sector, they are happening in the organised sector, too. Be it hospitality, tourism, retail majors or media, the vapourisation of visible products has meant that companies are slashing salaries, furloughing employees or retiring those on the cusp of their sunset years. Small businesses have all but wrapped up. And this is just three weeks. If indeed the spiral merits an extended lockdown, then an economic package must be in place. It cannot come in a piecemeal manner or a measured way to gain political mileage later. Modi, the PM, has to appear as everybody’s benefactor, not of his constituents. A pan-India TV speech is the best platform to do it, rather than telling employers not to sack people.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The media is a tertiary industry and as a result will face more trouble before things improve. Which may take years
News about salary delays, cuts and outright layoffs are rampant on groups of journalists. The seemingly heavy-handed cutbacks, which are being blamed on the Coronavirus, have affected both veteran journalists and rookie reporters. Lest it be upon us to judge the decisions made by other media groups, every single media entity is in a spot of financial trouble, including this newspaper, as revenue sources — be it from the Government or the private sector — have completely dried up during the lockdown. At the same time, costs for printing and distribution as well as salaries have remained the same. Then virulent misinformation about the spread of COVID-19 through newspapers has prevented distributors from giving them out in all areas. Newspapers are still better off than their brethren in the magazine sector, where in many cases, printing presses are shut as news stands, which are the primary source of distribution for many magazines, are empty. In a way, the Indian media is responsible for some of the crisis, thanks to the “price wars” of the 1990s that have driven down the subscriber costs of newspapers, making them more dependent on private sector advertising.
Yet, it is not just the print media that is suffering. Layoffs and salary cuts are taking place in television as well. Flawed distribution strategies by channels and policies by the regulator have meant many news channels are free-to-air and, thus, survive on advertisements. With India’s industry shut, that source of revenue has dried up. While people may believe that the web is a land of milk and honey, much advertising revenues are swallowed up by the likes of Facebook and Google and eyeballs are not equal to revenue. Indeed, the high establishment cost of several start-up media sites will ensure that many might not make the cut once COVID-19 is dealt with, leaving a scarred and empty media landscape. Can the Government do much? For one, supporting the media through advertising as well as relaxing the wage board for print will be a start. Despite that, cutbacks will be brutal, many journalists and managers in the media will be out of a job and almost no journalism graduates will be hired for the next year. Our role in the media will be job preservation and creation and for that, the Government has to think out of the box and cut the industry some slack.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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An ill-advised section of Muslims is disregarding precautionary measures against Corona, thus imperiling safety. There’s history but no reason why that view should guide their choice
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Does it seem like a déjà vu? In December 1849, cholera was detected in Beylik of Tunis (now Tunisia). Ahmad I ibn Mustafa (1805-55), a progressive ruler, left the capital city of Tunis terrified. He moved to a gardened villa of the then Prime Minister Mustapha Khaznadar in Carthage along with a personal retinue and armed guards. From his new camp office, he deployed Italian doctors from nizam jadid (new European-style Army of Tunisia) for treatment in temporary hospitals set up in the barracks. Daily statistics of the infection, deaths and recovery were compiled, which along with instructions of hygiene, were printed in Italian and Arabic language. These were distributed in the mosques and churches for the edification of the people.
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Then came the inflection point during the Mawlid al-nabi (the Prophet’s Birthday), which fell on January 27, 1850. Ahmad I ibn Mustafa was in dilemma regarding the celebratory congregations and the advisability of his joining them in view of the outbreak. Ultimately, he sent a communiqué, ordering the celebrations to be held as usual and for oil to be sent to the minarets. The event was held; canons fired; and two verses of the Quran were read to “comfort the people in times of difficulty.”
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Within days, the epidemic was raging the Muslim quarters, and before long, the entire city of Tunis was in the grip of cholera. Muhammed Sharif, a notable figure of Tunis, passed away on February 6, which was followed by the death of several of his family members and those who had come in contact with him. This incident has been described by Nancy Elizabeth Gallagher in her insightful book, Medicine and power in Tunisia, 1780-1900 (1983, CUP).
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The worst was yet to come. The epidemic polarised public opinion in Tunis. Many blamed the European doctors, by extension, their line of treatment. Several doctors were abused and manhandled. Ahmad I ibn Mustafa, advised by his personal Italian physician, Abraham Lumbroso, put himself in medical isolation. His extreme measures annoyed some of his Ministers. One day, a Group of Ministers politely told him that precaution by means of quarantine was nowhere to be found in Islam and is an invention of Christendom, whose knowledge of diseases and medicine is inferior to Islam.
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The debate over the propriety of quarantine took a theological turn. Prime Minister Khaznadar, a critic of European medicine, condemned the quarantine and declared that Muslims, who died of cholera, were martyrs. Bin Dayaf, Ahmad I ibn Mustafa’s personal secretary, opined that self-preservation by quarantine was legal and no religious text disapproved of it. The two reached out to a certain cleric. Tayyib Al-Riyahi, son and expected successor Ibrahim al-Riyahi, Imam of Great Mosque of Tunis, issued a fatwa that victims of cholera were martyrs by citing the Hadith of Muwatta (the Maliki law book) because they died of internal wounds. Then Khazandar and Bin Dayaf went to Mufti Muhammed bin Salama, who ruled that victims of cholera were not martyrs. At this point, Bin Dayaf ended his discussion by observing that whatever be the reality, even “alims (scholars of Islam) die of cholera.”
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Combating communicable diseases has often been vitiated by theological considerations and confrontations in the past. It took almost four centuries for the Ottoman Empire to have a quarantine policy. Sultan Mahmud II, advised by his Austrian doctor, Anton Lagos, and impressed by the treatise of Hamdan Bin El-Mehrum Osman Hoca, finally adopted quarantine as a measure to combat plague in 1838 even as the disease had bedevilled the Ottoman Empire at least since the mid-15th century. No doubt, had there been men like Idris-i Bitlisi, an Ottoman statesman, and Isameddin Ahmed bin Mustafa Tasköprüzade, a prominent judge way back in the 16th century who advocated a rational approach, there would be precedence. There were prominent medical doctors like Osman bin Suleyman Penah (d.1817) in the reign of Selim III, too. They advocated that quarantine and precautions against plague and epidemic would signify betrayal of Muslim’s trust in divine fate (tevekkul).
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Birsen Bulmus, in his eminently readable, Plague, Quarantines and the Geopolitics of the Ottoman Empire (2012), traces the history of health and medical policies against plague and allied epidemics in the Turkish reign. Bulmus exhibits how it was not only Muslim divines and physicians who doubted quarantines/precautions but in reality, whatever kills a Christian also kills a Muslim. Whatever cures a Hindu, cures a Muslim as well. Physiology is more egalitarian than theology.
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The holy city of Mecca was affected by cholera in 1831, which recurred almost annually during the pilgrimage. Its invasion was particularly serious in 1865, when almost a third of the pilgrims reportedly perished. It was the most dominant issue at the International Sanitary Conference at Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1866. A six-member committee, comprising Arabs and Europeans, drew up a report to regulate the maritime traffic for Hajj pilgrimage in 1867.
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Thus, if Saudi Arabia has now put Mecca and Medina under lockdown and is contemplating on deferring the annual Hajj scheduled for July 28-August 2 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it is only because they know their history better. Mosques are likewise closed to congregations in India. The Ulema has appealed the Muslims to tender namaz at home, including on Friday.
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However, the irresponsible behaviour of a section of the community in India is putting its collective safety against COVID-19 at great risk. The Tablighi Jamat’s grand event at Nizamuddin Markaz Masjid between March 13 and 15 has led to a huge spike in Coronavirus cases. Though there was no lockdown in India at the time of the conference, the Delhi Government had already prohibited all types of gathering above 200 people by then. They continued to hold back more than 2,000 participants in a six-floor dormitory long after the event had ended. The management refused to buckle even after receiving notice from the Delhi Police. It took 36 hours to evacuate 2,361 people from the premises to put them into hospitals and quarantine centres.
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The misinformation campaign over Tik Tok, targetting impressionable young boys from the Muslim community to throw caution to the wind, is sinister. Those paying heed to such evil counsel will jeopardise their own health before they risk someone else’s. If Muslims had really been depending upon the divine will for health instead of modern medicine all these years, the hospitals in Delhi would not have a large percentage of them. Nor would the super speciality hospitals in India receive a large number of “medical tourists” from Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia, among others. Muslims, like anyone else, wear woollen clothes when it is winter and shed them in springtime. Why pass on all responsibility to Allah in the COVID season?
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As Ahmad I ibn Mustafa had said in 1850 cholera season, “If divine decree and fate arrive and I die with the disease, I fear I would say, ‘if only I had observed quarantine, this would not have happened’ because of my belief that everything comes from Allah.”
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(Writer: Priyadarshi Dutta; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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Aggressive cluster containment and flushout, be it in UP or Delhi, is the only way to tackle COVID-19
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Cluster containment, sealing, testing and lockdowns are now no longer administrative decisions. Affected people are beginning to internalise these choices as a necessary evil and are rewiring their lives around them. When you read reports of some women in Jammu, wearing plastic gear, completely sealing their locality from outsiders and maintaining vigil themselves, then you know that nobody wants to make a fatal flaw. Yes, the overnight building of invisible walls and the possibility of prolonged house arrest did distress people in hotspot clusters in Uttar Pradesh (UP), particularly Noida, sending them into war-time paranoia of stocking up more than was needed, but two days on, there is a drill. There is an essential service hotline and an app, a dedicated vendor assigned to each sealed area for fruits, vegetables, rations and medicines, and an SMS alert to pick up rations from a neighbourhood or society gate, according to time slots mentioned over such alerts. This means there is no over-crowding. Other than that, every resident is being confined indoors and not allowed to stray into any common space. Masks are mandatory and neighbourhood watchdogs are themselves handing over violators to the police. The Bhilwara model has pretty much become the drill for cluster containment, particularly in UP. In fact, apartment blocks and condominiums in Noida and Greater Noida had already ensured that their inmates with a travel history went into quarantine much before the national lockdown. The jump in the number of the Coronavirus cases is a cause of concern and the State Government is pretty much firm it won’t ease the lockdown till there is no possibility of prospective spread of the disease. Like Delhi, UP’s spike has been fuelled by Tablighi attendees. Nearly 1,600 Tablighi members have so far been identified in the State, of which over 1,200 have been quarantined. The authorities are in the process of tracking down the remaining Tablighi members for screening and quarantining and have even urged them to voluntarily come forward in the interest of their family’s health. No study is required to understand that there is a subterranean trellis of the disease that has quietly spread to communities that regularly engage with each other and form a part of the economic chain of demand and supply. This is why it is a challenge in UP to even get the agricultural chain going, from harvesting to procurement depots. The flight of migrant labourers has caused an acute shortage of farm hands. But if the lockdown is withdrawn prematurely, then it could defeat the purpose of the 21-day brakes and lead to a runaway situation. Also food rations are available now but without containment at this stage, there could be no economic activity going forward with the disease swamp. That could lead to more shortages, crops wasting in the farms and no supplies, sparking off a second humanitarian crisis that nobody wants. No agricultural belt in India can afford a compound crisis at this point.
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However, UP needs to follow up this disciplined confinement with active testing. The State Government is expanding the network of testing facilities to 24 and is upgrading various district hospitals in 14 districts, including Kannauj, Jalaun, Noida, Greater Noida, Ayodhya, Bahraich, Shahjahanpur and Saharanpur, to deal not only with the Coronavirus but any medical emergency of the future. Given its size and population, UP needs aggressive testing in clusters and faster serology tests besides pool tests. Once the trend is clearer district-wise, then it can get the local economy going with agricultural businesses and perhaps industrial production in zero districts. But at this point of time, both UP and Maharashtra, despite having high clusters, have to pretty much just hold fort as the shipments of serological test kits have not arrived in the country yet. Sources say at least five deadlines have been missed. So rapid testing is not possible at the moment and there can only be RT-PCR tests in clusters. Neither can we let precious test kits go waste. Till the data is not clear, only a lockdown at this point can push back a bulge. Wuhan did it for 76 days, in London it has been a month and Odisha has voluntarily shut itself off till April 30. Delhi’s Operation Shield in Dilshad Garden, where every house was screened and isolated, is now virus-free. Without capacity-building, India’s fight against COVID-19 will have to be about choking a silent monster at the earliest than allowing it a crack to slip through.
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(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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With deliveries getting going once again, but now supported by physical stores, is the way India shops going to change?
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There will be several societal and behavioural changes in the next few years that we will all be able to ascribe to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. A global phenomenon of wearing masks might take off beyond East Asia where it had normalised after the SARS pandemic. Personal hygiene changes will almost certainly become a norm. Everybody will wash hands more often and carrying a small personal hand-sanitiser will become a must. But what about shopping? With major outlets closed, traditional retail has taken a hit across the world, one, which coupled with the rise of online commerce, might make it difficult for the industry to recover. But some of the changes in online commerce, especially in India in Corona times, are noteworthy. One is the support that some online chains, from Amazon to Zomato, are getting from the public authorities in deliveries, especially to quarantined zones. The other major change is the way the delivery services are working. Small kirana outlets are making local area deliveries of bread, milk and eggs as well as fresh produce like fruits and vegetables. While some parts of major cities have decent access to provisions despite the lockdown, the fact that certain hotspots are being sealed as well as the news that the lockdown might continue for several more days mean that such deliveries are becoming even more vital. In times of restricted customer mobility, a smooth functioning of such platforms can help serve high demands. But for that, it is essential for them to remain automated and mechanised, they need to ensure adequate sanitisation of personnel and products and strive to drive innovation in the last mile. These new models, which marketing experts would describe as “competitive collaboration,” might be the way forward for the growth of e-commerce in India. This is because social and physical distancing might also become a norm across huge swathes of the nation.
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Of course, it is too early to predict when the nationwide lockdown will be completely lifted; it may be a month before some areas of the country are opened up. It is also impossible to predict which business models will survive the lockdown. Business as usual, as this paper has noted in the past, is over. That is also going to be the case with e-commerce. But will this collaborative model be the best way out of the lockdown rut for e-commerce companies? One will have to wait and watch.
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(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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