Besides various stimuli packages, PM-KISAN payments, MGNREGS wage increments, etc. work must be generated for our people. The psychological impact of not being productive could be as serious for our youth as starvation. An article by the American journal The Atlantic directs great concern towards the Millennials, those reaching adulthood in the early 21st century, who have witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime downturn for the second time in their lives (the first one in 2007–2009 that India remained more or less insulated against).

At a time when they have massive education and other debts, they have low paying jobs or no work with no chance of having the kind of security that their parents or grandparents had. The same is true for the youth of this country, who may live hand to mouth for much of their productive years.

It seems that the pandemic might be the last straw for Capitalism. More than 60% of the world’s population that is working in some sort of impoverished informal sector will have faced the loss of job security, while 50% of the world’s wealth continues to be held by 42 billionaires. In India, the top 10% of Indians hold 77% of the nation’s wealth.

As per a report by OXFAM International, India has been producing 70 new millionaires every day since 2018. With the knowledge that without basic needs, shelter, and healthcare made available to everyone, the country may not survive the next pandemic attack, it is time for the top 10% to support philanthropic initiatives in their own larger interest. As the environmental economist, K. William Kapp said, “capitalism must be regarded as an economy of unpaid costs”. Such unpaid costs are the exploitation of workers labour-power, the depletion of natural resources, and the degradation of the environment. It is perhaps time for those of us who have enjoyed the benefits of ‘surplus’ value to give back.

Even today, urban designers and planners will still vote for a well-designed city built around public transport arteries and equitably distributed healthcare facilities as the solution to turn to, post epidemic. Unfortunately, much of what aids this idea of a city in a developing country are throngs of migrant labour and contract workers who reside in slums and squatter settlements.

The idea of the virus ripping through the JJ colonies of Delhi or the slums of Dharavi is overwhelming. People, who have so far remained peripheral to the imagination of the city, must now be given due attention. Informal and semi-informal settlements may not feature in the designs of ‘world-class’ cities, but the truth is that out of the total population in the NCT of Delhi, about three-fourths are living in sub-standard housing.

Lack of basic amenities like sanitation, water supply and garbage and solid waste disposal compound overcrowded and ill-ventilated dwellings. Speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic, Edward Snowden recently said, "There is nothing more foreseeable as a public health crisis in a world where we are just living on top of each other in crowded and polluted cities, than a pandemic. And every academic, every researcher who's looked at this knew this was coming."

Part of the reason for such settlements within cities is the unaffordable cost of real estate within the city and the universal tendency of the government and private developers alike to monetize land parcels in the heart of the city. The squatter settlements, JJ colonies and resettlement colonies find space in the outskirts of cities from where people spend up to 50% of their earnings on public transportation.

If the current pandemic has taught us anything, it is that no one is safe until the last one of us is safe.

We cannot afford to create city models that endanger the lives and livelihoods of the majority of our people. Cities must be reimagined with well-designed social housing in the heart of the city alongside public transit corridors on rental or lease models.

Cities have always been thought of as one of the ways by which the rural poor can lift themselves out of poverty. The exodus of people from Delhi to their villages has proved the contrary. They may find the stability of regular earnings in the city. However, if that stability is disrupted, then it is only their rural habitats that can provide them with true security.

This must be investigated and remedied if cities need to continue to be generators of wealth and security for everyone. Our defence budget of 4.1 Trillion Rupees against the external threat of invasion must be redistributed to first combat an internal structural implosion of societies during times of crises. India, one of the largest spenders on defence, has been amassing missiles and armaments when clearly, as this pandemic has shown, the next war will not be fought with traditional firepower.

In the past, pandemics have brought great political shifts and economic upheavals in their wake that demarcated entire historical eras. This has usually spelt greater power and control for the State as notions of economic and medical security were inextricably linked to industrialization and urbanization—activities that could not be undertaken without the State’s patronage.

During each of the previous pandemics, governments grew stronger as steps are taken to curb the disease permitted them a culture of authority that could neither be resisted during the crisis nor rescinded after it had passed. This strength of resolve and authority will be needed from all governments going forward to combat the virus but to also lay the foundations for a new world that will have to face other such pandemics in years to come. Like in times of war the first thing to take a hit are people’s civil liberties. Like in times of war, we are heading into the unknown. It must be expected that freedom of speech and the press would be taken away despite constitutional provisions.

Tracking the infection (and us) through mobile applications, drone surveillance as well as monitoring of hotspots, are issues that would have riled the most naive of us during times of peace. Unfortunately, these are not times of peace and most of us will wilfully surrender such liberties at present. However, no assurances by governments that the data collected will not be shared by corporations or used for any other purpose, can be taken at face value. We must safeguard our liberties as much as possible and hope that our elected leaders have been chosen well by the citizenry to protect the rights of the people of this country.

Let us not assume for a moment that the end is anywhere in sight or that the epicentre which has moved from China to Europe to the US will not move to other locations such as countries in South America, Africa or Asia that may not be able to afford an extended lockdown. It may be too early to expect the world will rearrange itself on the deaths of a few million people. But it is too late to imagine that the world will be left intact by this pandemic. It is time for each of us to reflect on the choices we have made so far and the choices that will be put to us in the near future.

In our personal and professional lives, profound changes are imminent. We may have a small chance of directing our paths if we are alert and aware. We must not merely recover from this crisis. We must evolve from it. (IPA Service)