Much more to be done for guest workers

The first step towards finding a solution to a problem is to admit its existence, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s candid admission on the plight of the poor and the guest workers due to the coronavirus pandemic must be seen as a welcome step towards addressing the humanitarian crisis this nation has been witnessing for more than two months now. In his monthly Mann Ki Baat address to the nation on Sunday, Mr Modi said the poor and labourers have been hit the hardest and that their pain cannot be explained in words. This has been perhaps the first time the top political leadership of the country acknowledged the eminently avoidable human tragedy. Reports of hardships the Railways caused to the guest workers who boarded the Shramik special trains were galore; it took the intervention of the Supreme Court for the government to even consider making travel free for the poor, who were earlier asked to shell out extra money for it. One may suggest that the government get a clearer picture of the ground realities, given the disappointing ways in which some government agencies such as the Railways functioned. Its attempt to transport the stranded people was too little and too late an operation which proved too costly for the beneficiaries, distraught as they already have been.

The Prime Minister’s reference to introspection and learning from the mistakes gains added importance in the background of a group of public health experts writing to the government pointing out some serious flaws in the covid containment strategy and offering some solutions.

In the opinion of the experts of the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) and Indian Association of Epidemiologists, the current situation of the pandemic spreading rapidly could have been avoided had the guest workers been allowed to go home at the beginning of the epidemic when the disease spread was very low. Their criticism that the government refused to take decisions based on information provided by field-level epidemiologists who are better acquainted with disease transmission dynamics instead of clinicians and academic epidemiologists with limited field training and skills merits serious consideration. A proper introspection will help the government avoid taking knee jerk reactions and “incoherent” and often rapidly shifting strategies and policies in place of a well-thought, cogent strategy with an epidemiological basis. They also called for open and transparent data sharing with scientists, public health professionals and the public at large, which were “conspicuous by its absence” now. That two members of the group are part of a government-constituted advisory committee to contain the pandemic adds authenticity to the letter.

A proper introspection will help the government avoid taking knee jerk reactions and “incoherent” and often rapidly shifting

strategies and

policies in place of a well-thought, cogent strategy with an epidemiological basis