Religion-wise virus mapping mooted
Centre plans to ‘understand’ origin, spread of Coronavirus among different communities
As the deadly Coronavirus continues to spread rapidly, the Centre is mulling a religion-based mapping to analyse Covid-19 hotspots across the country to “understand” the origin and pattern of spread of the virus community wise.
Put simply, the “communal mapping” as some refer to it, appears to be aimed at getting a clear picture of the approximate number of people belonging to different communities who have contracted the virus, have more chances of getting infected due to a variety of reasons while living in clusters and the likelihood of their spreading the virus to adjoining localities.
The Centre feels that a data bank of communitywise Covid numbers will help in taking up containment measures and will also be helpful in tackling future pandemics in the country.
Highly placed sources told Deccan Chronicle from New Delhi that the idea to have religionbased mapping came up during some of the recent closed-door meetings in the corridors of power in the national capital. Though, officially, no decision has been taken so far on whether or not to go ahead with the proposal, it is unclear if the exercise has already begun. This comes at a time when there is a general perception that state governments are not giving out correct figures of the numbers of Covid-19 cases.
“In the near future, if Coronavirus cases explode like it happened in the US or other parts of the world, religion-based mapping will tell us which community has more chances of spreading the virus further and accordingly strict containment measures can be taken in localities or clusters across the country,” sources, who were privy to discussions, disclosed.
If undertaken, the mapping will take into account the geography of the area or cluster, the lifestyles of people and their earnings, their religious and social activities, their daily routines and the approximate number of members in the families. “For all this to happen, state governments will have to cooperate. There is also some amount of skepticism as to how the people will receive this idea, if and when approved, as there are chances of this backfiring on the government,” the sources said adding that the government is aware of the criticism that could come its way.
Citing examples of Agra in Uttar Pradesh, some pockets in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi which are witnessing increasing number of Covid-19 cases, the proposal to have a religion-based mapping was mooted, sources said.
“There are several reports before the Centre which suggest that the virus is active among scores of people residing in colonies or clusters and they are sitting on a time bomb. It is here that along with other inputs, religion-based mapping will come handy for taking adequate containment measures. But that is only in a scenario when the number of cases shoot up,” another official said.
Sources said that this data bank will also come handy for tackling pandemics in the future. “Coronavirus has taught us a lesson and now is time to prepare ourselves with enough data on the origin and pattern of the spread of the virus,” they added.