Saving lives and livelihoods

The question of livelihood is getting desperate. The cure today is proving more expensive than the pandemic

A housing society with nearly 3,000 families in Greater Noida was sealed this week due to a family being found Covid-positive. These families, most of them first-time flat owners, self-employed or working for private enterprises in the National Capital Region (NCR), are a relatively new bunch of inhabitants to this area. The sealing exercise ensured most of them are imprisoned within the society complex while their employers threatened them with salary cuts if not layoffs. For the first time perhaps since the lockdown began in March-end, angry employees from the housing society took to an organised demonstration to save their livelihoods.

A few dozen special trains meant to transport migrant labourers to their States allegedly got  diverted on extended routes and ended up terminating at wrong destinations across the country. Many flights, too, got cancelled within the first two days of resuming operations in the country.

A high-intensity super cyclone whipped its way into mainland West Bengal leaving a trail of unprecedented destruction. It took nearly four days to restore electricity in the capital city of Kolkata even as rural and semi-urban areas are yet to be reached and assessed, for providing basic amenities like clean drinking water.

The above examples are just a fragment of the apologetic tale of mismanagement and lack of coordination between different arms of the same Government in a particular geography. If we start adding layers of Central, State, district, city and neighborhood governance to this, an almost incomprehensible cobweb of India’s ongoing pandemic-redressal system emerges.

It takes courage and a Himalayan leap of faith to impose a lockdown this stringent for more than two months on almost one-fifth of humanity, for a Prime Minister. We understand Narendra Modi took a call to save lives while bartering away over 400 million livelihoods, of people who had just about begun to start having a semi-global existence with most basic amenities like electricity, clean drinking water, gas connections and a monthly income of nearly $150. In just two months, the harsh realities of still being a poor nation have started hitting hordes if not headlines.

Consider snapshots like the “Biggest recession for India”, “Millions of faceless, traceless stranded nowhere”, “Lockdown exit strategy missing.” The real issue is beginning to stare most of us in the face and we are slowly realising that there is no lockdown exit strategy at all.

This reminds me of another great warrior. In the Mahabharata, Abhimanyu, the son of the brave Arjun, was a child prodigy who mastered the key skill sets of warfare in his mother’s womb. However, Abhimanyu didn’t know how to get out of the Chakrvyuha (a multi-tier defensive formation used in warfare), even if he did know what it took to get into one and win a day in a battle. We all know what it takes to prepare and get into a war. But how many know how to safely get out of one with least collateral damage to human life or limb, especially if the war is not at the borders?

That’s a crucial point, to drive at this stage and here are some near-safe assumptions: Covid-19 spreads fastest with human- to-human contact. Misinformation or mistrust is a greater virus than Covid and is here to stay longer. A vaccine, if at all, is at least a year away from the developed world and much longer for a poor yet aspirational nation like ours.

The developing world can only wish for more heat and homemade remedies. The surprise element is that some of that ancient common sense does work in dealing with a deadly virus.

 There is no statistical data to prove any of the above claims, but most of them have great significance. Indians can at this stage wish for a common-sense guided approach to the pandemic.

India has had a good recovery rate till now and low fatality as compared to the rest of the world, based on public information. And there is no reason to doubt this information since in a nation with nearly 1.5 billion phones the truth can’t be suppressed for too long. Somebody or the other will definitely capture an anomaly and let the information flow. Let us also accept and be cautious that India has managed to hold up so far and lives as envisaged by our Prime Minister are more saved than lost.

However, the question of livelihood is getting desperate, the cure today is proving more expensive than the cause. Every life saved today may be lost to malnutrition, hunger, preventable disease or disaster in the near future. Keepers of the law on the ground aren’t safe from the pandemic or viral flow of misinformation and one-size-fits-all can’t be the approach.

Going extremely micro-local and an empowered approach to tackle the pandemic can be a solution for the long-term fight against the virus. However, remember that with great power comes great responsibility. Therefore, frontline lawmakers, right from the senior-most to those guarding the neighborhoods to prevent the outflow of the virus, have to ensure livelihoods and social distancing at the same time.

(The writer is a senior policy analyst)