Every country has devised its own strategyto fight covid-19. They are combating this pandemic by optimum utilization offacilities and resources available to them. The challenges are myriad but thedeveloping countries will take a lot of time to recover from their shakingeconomy. This is not a battle of minds but a battle of strength. This is thetime when the niceties have to go out of the window and a strict procedure hasto be followed. There is a difference between how rural and urban areas areresponding to the lockdown, although stringent measures have to be followed inrural areas due to limited healthcare facilities but the situation is otherwisein most of the states. There have been initial lapses and failures in tracking,isolating and treating patients but now the system has to be strengthened.Until the authorities come up with cure, the world can take pains towardslittle care.
Given the fragile state of economy andfrail healthcare system, India should have taken the warning signs seriously inJanuary instead of a nationwide lockdown from March 20. The response to thepandemic would have been better. The first infection in India was detected inJanuary and the response came too late. Had the warning signs been takenseriously, there would have been other alternative to hastily thought outnational lockdown. Steve Hanke, Professor of economics at Johns HopkinsUniversity has said that government hospitals will run out of beds in ruralIndia if only 0.03 percent of population is hit by virus. The healthcare systemin rural India is in a state of despair and panic. The staff has to facecritical shortages of medical supplies, testing kits and PPEs and the doctorshave to work at greater personal risk. Uttar Pradesh which is denselypopulated, equivalent to that of Brazil has only eleven testing facilities asof April 10. Apart from this, people in rural areas are taking rumoursseriously. A huge slice of rural people in Punjab are using the methodssuggested by social media. The biggest challenge is that of slums, how can weeducate a person about quarantine living in congested room with ten people? Thegovernment has to be more inclusive about the marginalized sections of the society.India ranked 102 in global hunger index and the unemployment rate is higherthan in 45 years, this pandemic has a potential to take India into economiccatastrophe killing more people than Covid-19 itself.
Unfortunately, people in rural areas arenot strictly following the lockdown. A common notion among Kashmiris, “yi chupeer weir, aes kya kari” is the other pandemic that we are fighting. Peoplestill make visits to their neighbours and relatives instead of repeatedwarnings. My own parents attended a funeral some days back citing the reason,”kori hinz jaai”. These things have to be avoided at such a critical junctureeven if parenting the parents is required. We need to understand why certainsteps are being taken like washing hands and distant socializing. Also, it ishigh time we stop stigmatizing victims and their families; this virus does notrespect age, gender or nationality. Viruses do not discriminate but people do.Let us not fritter away our energies on discrimination and fight for equity andequality both for rural and urban population.
(Azra Mufti is a doctoral student of psychological Management and an author of two books)