Pandemic posed a number of challenges, with the govt’s apathy and ineptitude topping the list

Human beings are known for adaptation in different circumstances. As a result of this capacity to adapt, Homo Sapiens have progressed from the primitive age to the modern times. Unlike many other animal species who perish in adverse circumstances, human beings have learnt to pass through the crises with effort and labour. That is why we find people survive in temperature from minus 70°C to the other extreme of plus 50°C.

Not only that, mankind survived to carry life forward despite several deadly diseases but overcame these diseases and prevented them from reoccurrence through new innovations and hard work. To name a few, Bubonic Plague and Small Pox cause havoc at one time but are nowhere to be seen now. In 1918-19, the world had witnessed Spanish Flu Pandemic which killed 5-10 crore people worldwide out of which 1.2 crores were died in India alone. But mankind moved forward.

The present pandemic of SARS COV-2 or COVID-19 has again showed us the resolve to fight it out. This period of COVID-19 has been full of various challenges right from apathy, compassion, fear, disbelief, isolation, anxiety, economic hardships, business machinations, cooperation, spreading myths, innovation and scientific attitude.

Even though we had known about COVID cases in December 2019, our government was totally unconcerned as it was busy according a welcome to the US President in Ahmedabad in the last week of February 2020. This is despite the fact that on 30th January 2020, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared 2019-nCoV outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, following a second meeting of the Emergency Committee convened under the International Health Regulations.

Then there were engineered communal riots in Delhi in the last week of February 2020 which killed many innocent persons. Many are still languishing in jails without proper trial.

To cover up these failures, a sudden lockdown was declared on 24th March 2020 with a notice of only four hours which pushed crores of people into extreme crises of food, jobs, livelihood and accommodation. In the absence of any concrete action or assurance from the government to help them and in the absence of any transport, they walked hundreds of kilometres on foot, bicycles, paddle rickshaws, autos or any other means available.

Many of them died on the way of hunger, exhaustion or accidents. The poor hungry had to even face the wrath of lathi-yielding policemen for no reason. That those in the higher ups did not know all this cannot be believed. But it has shown that man can be so ruthless, narcissist and sadist in his behavior towards marginalized sections of the society.

Bias and contempt against the poor was apparent among the middle classes who stopped the entry of domestic help into their colonies, claiming that they would bring the disease into their homes even though with the passage of time we have learnt that the spread of disease was much less among the working people. This caused economic hardships to millions of those engaged as domestic help as most of their employers refused to pay them salary.

For millions this has been a period of crises of different types. The poor working people were left at the mercy of NGOs or philanthropist people who were kind enough to collect and distribute ration/cooked food for them. In the absence of that many would have starved.

The middle and the upper classes faced different types of challenges. Initially they did not care much because they had no problem in feeding themselves. But soon they too started feeling economic hardships due to loss of jobs and closure of businesses. Since the government gave little support, owners of small businesses had no option but to retrench their workers or reduce their salary which put working people into further hardships.

Even after things have improved a bit, the business of many has not picked up. All this forced a substantial number into depression and to take extreme steps like committing suicide. However even in difficult circumstances, the workers of different sectors continued to work and keep the economy going to an extent. The public sector units did a good job by continuing essential services.

Lockdown forced people to stay indoors which created several behavioural problems. Without school and peer group meetings, children became irritable and aggressive. Some of them got engrossed into mobile phones which further affected their outlook. This period without schooling hampered their development and normal behaviour. Forced online education even for toddlers is against the basic norms of education.

Those from the lower income group, however, could not afford online education. Women who were holding regular meetings among themselves after domestic work were forced to stay home cooking for the family. Such circumstances led to increase in domestic violence.

The whole society was gripped in fear of the disease. If any member of the family fell ill due to COVID, the whole family members became extremely anxious. In case of any mishap, the situation got worse. That the family members were not allowed to meet the hospitalized person perpetuated their anxiety.

The worse scenario was when the family was not allowed to see the body of the deceased. The fear was so much that at some places society members did not permit cremation in the regular cremation grounds, which further added to the agony.

A section of the people even in these adverse circumstances stooped low enough to spread myths. Cow urine and cow dung were propagated to be the ‘cure’ of Coronavirus.

Some people were totally insensitive towards the people’s difficulties. They were busy minting money. This is true for the small business as well who sold goods at high cost. Transporters including taxis, trucks and buses charged exorbitantly from those who wanted to go home to their kith and kin in this hour of uncertainty.

Even though health workers, particularly in the state sector, did a good job risking their life, corporate hospitals took no mercy and charged heavily. Many doctors who neither had any co-morbidity nor were in the vulnerable age group panicked to such an extent that they stopped examining the patients. This happened more in the private sector. Such behaviour from health personnel was totally unexpected and against the medical ethics.

However it is worth mentioning that over 700 qualified doctors of modern medicine lost their lives in the fight against COVID. It is bizarre to note that the Ministry of Health claims it did not have any data with them of the number of doctors who lost their lives.

It is to be noted with satisfaction that inquisitive behaviour of human beings led to finding cause, treatment and prevention of the disease. The use of modern media helped in spreading the message to the society at large. As a result, we have been able to reduce the number of deaths substantially in comparison to the Spanish Flu one hundred years back.

Views expressed are personal

(IPA Service)