The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented one. The world hasn’t experienced anything like this since the Spanish Flu of 1918.
Originating in China — in its wet markets or in a lab or elsewhere – it has swept through the world and caused havoc, death and economic destruction.
The virus has no vaccine yet. So, it’s safe to assume that the world will remain vulnerable to its spread for the near term. The impact of the pandemic shock is already playing out, with major hits to business, livelihood and job losses of massive scales. Predictably, the weakest and the most-vulnerable are bearing the brunt in this early phase; and income losses combine to drive millions of migrant workers back to their home states in difficult conditions. The home states are underequipped to handle the sudden influx.
Regardless of what many futurologists, experts and economists forecast, we may conclude that the world is taking a drive backward. As long as a vaccine remains elusive, governments and citizens are making difficult balancing acts to protect people’s health, lives, and aspects of livelihood. It’s a choice governments in the modern age had not been called upon to make.
By now, it’s obvious our lives will never be the same again. There are real changes in governance and priorities that have already been brought to our attention. Issues long ignored are now the pressing priorities for our lives. A requirement is for a national portable social security architecture for the poor and the informal sector. The scenes post COVID-19, of lakhs of migrants struggling their way back to their home states, have woken us to the structural vulnerability of the informal sector and their lack of access to basic social security. This, starkly, even 75 years after Independence; and despite the decades of the GaribiHatao sloganeering. The informal sector and the poor must be integrated with the formal system and covered by a comprehensive social security scheme.
Two, personal safety and health security, long ignored or accorded low priorities by successive governments, must begin getting the highest priority. All Indians deserve high quality and universal healthcare. The PM Ayushman Bharat scheme was a good start. It needs to be expanded rapidly with focus also on creating more health care delivery capacity in districts that are away from metros.
India has only 0.7 beds per a population spread of 1,000 and 0.8 doctors per 1,000 people. We spend only about 3 per cent of the GDP on health care and wellness. These are inadequate in a world with high risks of pandemics. The only way the nation’s confidence can be resilient in times of a pandemic and infections is to raise the level of confidence in its healthcare capacity and capabilities.
Sustainability as part of our economic development model will become critical to ensure that we do not see a return of pandemics to this landmass. Self-reliant AatmaNirbhar local community/state and national model of development is one where people can find employment or other opportunities of livelihood in their own states and communities. It is one where local communities which were the bedrock of our societal model are rebuilt.
Technology and remote working: Technology will now move into every aspect of our lives as more and more remote working and remote engagement take over. Remote working will now be the norm, not an exception – for governments, for judiciaries and for businesses — via use of Internet.
Regardless of this deep shock and disruptions in our lives and livelihood, we must keep the faith. We must be confident that we will prevail and rebuild; that the lives we go back to will be different, smarter, more compassionate, more caring, more aware and set the right priorities to our communities, states and the nation. To all the Odiya people reading this and reeling from the Cyclone Amphan shock as well, I convey my wishes for a speedy recovery.
The writer is BJP Member of Parliament and a technology entrepreneur.