As the Omicron wave surges, restrictions are back, and the usual business of life once again stands disrupted. The business is once again taking a hit, and the danger to livelihood is once again rearing its head.
Though the scenario is different than what it was in the first wave, but the capacity to endure any losses has certainly diminished. The only hope is that the wave will soon be at its peak and then start breaking.
There are indicators that it will come down sharply, and we will soon be past these restrictions. Another comforting factor in the present wave is that symptoms are milder, and deaths are rare. Though that is no reason to lower the guard, but it does provide a psychological relief when we compare the things to the first attack of COVID in 2019-20.
The question now is that what are the plans after this wave flattens? Now that we have enough data with us on how the virus has been conducting itself for the past two years, we should be wiser and sharper in framing the policy and implementing it.
The most pressing concern in all this is about the businesses that have got badly affected. Among them the education sector is the worst hit. Though the wheels of education were kept in motion through online mode, but nothing can substitute for the real, in person classes.
Besides, the mental development of students does not happen only through teaching. When students meet, talk, play, participate in various programmes – it is the wholistic way of development.
That is badly needed by our students now. Further, those mid-cap schools that are in hundreds in J&K have badly suffered. They are almost closing, if the present condition doesn’t end soon.
The concerned departments must take this matter on a priority basis, and devise some method to rescue these schools. It is good that government schools must function well, and stand as an alternative, but private schools are contributing to education in a huge way. We cannot afford a breakdown in this sector.