Pressing the reset button in times of the coronavirus pandemic
soon. The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the inadequacies of the health care system and has underlined the need for substantial investments in public health infrastructure.
Migrant workers are returning home in large numbers amid the uncertainty. We have to step up efforts to retain them where they are at the moment and bring back those who returned home by reassuring them about their future and instilling confidence.
The coronavirus outbreak has brought out the best in cooperative federalism in our country with the central- and state-level leadership accommodating each other’s point of view as the situation unfolded, from lockdown 1.0 to 4.0. This spirit should guide the execution of the steps announced for economic revival. The central and state governments have become more visible in fighting the virus than ever before. The third-tier of governance and local communities need to be empowered to deal with such crisis situations for even better results.
The historian and author, Yuval Noah Harari, lamented that the global response to Covid-19 has not been ideal. With nations fighting their own battles against the virus, the much-needed collective global response is missing in action, adversely impacting those with low resource bases. This needs to be addressed for better results and to prepare for future shocks.
The pandemic has brought into sharp focus the existing inequalities in respect to access to technology, income levels and livelihood vulnerabilities, resulting in varied degrees of pain inflicted by the virus on different sections of society across the globe. Proper lessons need to be learned from this.
In sum, the coronavirus is a shock treatment and a stark reminder of the need to reset approaches on the social, political, economic and global fronts besides living in harmony with each other and with nature.
Mumbai, where I spent a considerable number of days reporting, there are 8,000 common toilets for about eight hundred thousand people, which makes containing the virus an enormous challenge.
As this pandemic exposes the nation’s stratified, unequal society for what it is, some of these inequities are the legacy of decades, of course. And every government is complicit.
But the policy roller-coaster on migrant workers is inexplicable. On March 30, Mehta informed the court that there were “no migrants on the road.” But the truth (unequivocally captured on camera ) is that for nearly two months after that our workers remained on the road. Until one week ago, I met men, women and children on highway after highway, walking on foot, unwilling or unable to wait any longer for trains and buses. Or chasing trucks, with folded hands, begging for a ride, offering anything the driver wanted in exchange.
When the trains were first announced, I was excited to wave off a train from Surat as it took workers to Bihar. But even this was handled with needless lack of transparency and incorrect information. The Centre and states insist workers are not paying for train tickets. But they are. I was on board a train from Karnataka to Uttar Pradesh and every single worker I met had paid for his own ticket, taking loans, selling phones to do so. I interviewed the wife of Qazi Anwar who died on a train going home. They too had bought their own tickets, paying ~700 extra to the tout who helped them get these. The SG must know we would all like some good news. But hope cannot be the glossing over of reality or sugar-coating tragedy. I would call doing that an abdication of duty — both moral and professional.