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21 days of lockdown: After twiddling thumbs, some action but too meagre

By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal. Dated: 3/29/2020 12:23:17 AM

MARGINALIA

A complete lockdown in India early on, unlike countries like China, Italy and Spain that waited for spread of Coronavirus, has a massive advantage. However, without a slew of important actions needed to be in place at a neck-break pace this lockdown may not only be ineffective but also counter-productive. Lack of application of mind and absence of three significant measures or the half-hearted ways in actions are taken will push the country to far graver dangers. After wasting the first two and a half days of the lock down twiddling thumbs, it is good that the Indian government finally recognised some of these as vital. But would this be adequate enough?
Firstly, the medical fight against the pandemic has to be given the top-most priority. Globally successful examples, World Health Organisation and medical experts have highlighted the significance of enhancing testing levels. India, the second most populous country in the world, ranks too low in the global chart of Covid-19 tests. On Thursday, the government announced that the stringent protocols for tests will be relaxed and it will go on an over-drive of screenings. It also announced that 10 lakh coronavirus testing kits were being procured, for starters. The number is too little for the size of the population the government is dealing with and we are already running out of time. "Maximising tests, isolating and treating" has been found to be the only success recipe to root out this virus fully. There is also no clarity on how the government will enhance the health infrastructure including beds, isolation wards and ventilators to meet the eventuality of an exponential growth in the number of cases. Added to this, the abject callousness of the government in weeks after the WHO asked the Indian government to stock up enough protective gears including masks and gloves as well as medicines, the exports of the domestic production of these were not stopped till March 19 and no effort was made to provide stimulus to the health-sector. The doctors and health workers in many hospitals are still working without sufficient protective gears.
In another two weeks from now, fully blown-up cases are likely to emerge. Is the government prepared to combat that possible challenge? The prime minister in his second address while announcing the lockdown last week announced an amount of Rs 15,000 crores to strengthen the health-care system. The amount is far too meagre than Rs 20,000 crore announced two weeks ago by the Kerala chief minister for a population of 35 million. Working to Re 0.11 per person, for a population of 1.3 billion, the amount earmarked can at best cover the cost of exorbitantly priced Covid-19 confirmation tests for only about 30 lakh people. That is not even a fraction of the population. Not only does the health infrastructure need immediate upgradation, the doctors and para-medics working there need effective protection gears to minimize the chances of spread and to ensure the safety of those who are at the forefront of the battle. Other than this, the challenge of how people suffering with routine ailments, including cancer patients and diabetic who are at greater vulnerability of being infected by the contagion, will get medical health-care in view of a lockdown that has begun to resemble a strictly enforced curfew. India's annual spending on health-care is too low to meet that challenge. This year's budget on health sector is Rs 1.2 lakh crores (Rs 0.7 per person and less than one percent of the country's GDP). Unless the government is ready to divert funds in a massive way towards health and also make an impassioned appeal to Corporate Inc, which has benefitted a great deal due to several bail-outs by the government in the recent years, to donate liberally, there is no way that the present danger can be combatted with success.
Secondly, the government needs to improve its mechanism for addressing the immediate economic fallout, particularly to address the issue of starvation and hunger as many poor people, particularly those working in unorganized sector, will be rendered completely jobless. Needless to point out that the slogans of 'washing hands' and 'social distancing' ring hollow looking at how the country's poor live. Many have no access to direct water for daily use, leave alone clean drinking water. The urban poor live in congested slums where they are so closely packed that they can barely breathe, leave alone maintain the necessary distance of one metre. They government could have opened up existing public buildings for them to ensure that they be moved from cramped spaces besides ensuring adequate supply of water and basic soaps for them.
From remaining immersed in abject denial, the government finally agreed to earmark a sum of Rs 1,75,000 crores for this purpose which is a good beginning but will not be able to address the problem. This amounts to less than 1 percent of India's GDP. Not only does this seem too less in comparison to many developed countries offering to shell out 20 percent of the GDP, India's two-third of the population is abysmally poor and one-fourth of its population is below the poverty line. The economic support which includes 5 kg of grains and a kg of pulses per person for the next three months, coupled with cash transfers, in some cases to the tune of Rs 500 is a pittance for survival. While this sum needs to be enhanced, what is also crucial is how the basic essentials are going to be delivered to the needy. There lies the rub.
Far from enhancing relief for the poor as well as small and medium businesses as well as support for many from the middle classes who will be jobless during the lockdown, the State has added to the woes of the poor by turning the country into a virtual police state. About 200-300 million migrant workers who were caught unawares when the lockdown was announced by the prime minister at 8 PM, giving nobody any time to stock up essentials or allow the migrant workers to pack up and leave for their distant homes, were caught in a virtual bind - no food, no transport and nowhere to go other than sit huddled in their shanty slums or take the long treks back home to far off states. Shocking reports of police lathi-charging them, harassing them and even punishing them by making them squat on the road or forcing them to leap-frog some of the distance reflect the failure of the state. The government did not give them sufficient time to make their arrangements or travel back home. Not only did it not provide transportation facilities or meals (which it could easily have), it left them at the mercy of unsensitised cops, who cannot see the difference between a curfew imposed to maintain law and order and a lockdown imposed to protect the citizens from a pandemic. Brutalising the people on the roads including those connected with essential services, which the government announced did not come under the lockdown (but without offering a road-map), has lead to complete chaos. Health-workers, delivery persons and journalists have complained of being roughed up by the police. The third pre-requisite, therefore, is sensitivity and sensitization of the entire civil and police administration in dealing with the public as well as maintain the chain of essential supplies. It would be in order to add to this the necessity of introducing basic and decent quarantine facilities, if people cannot be home quarantined, instead of the callousness of shoving scores of people in one congested room with poor or no sanitation facilities. It is also in place to mention the mindless and stubborn rigidness of denial of internet facility, so crucial to ensure that maximum people stay indoors and remain informed, in Kashmir Valley.
Without these Herculean tasks cut out, planned and executed, and without the government speeding up the work with an all hands on the deck policy, the three-week lockdown will be a sheer waste. The screenings, tests, trials, confirmation and isolation mechanism vital to dealing with coronavirus must be enhanced to the maximum possible. The chain of essential supplies must not be disrupted and above all, it is important to ensure that the poor are not just fed but also are not left in congested spaces to catch the contagion, which can then multiply very fast. Their starvation can force them out on the roads before the lock-down ends and dire situation can also prompt food riots. Half-hearted approach is as good as nothing. The goal should be rooting out the contagion fully from the country in the next couple of months. Merely slowing down the contagion for a while with no adequate action plan for the short and long term will only blow it back in our faces at uncontrollable pace.