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The novel Coronavirus infection has caused havoc around the globe sending thousands of people to death. Many countries imposed lockdown, some partial lockdown to contain the spread. India imposed countrywide lockdown on March 24 and extended it April 14. Prior to the imposition of lockdown, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi called for Janata (people’s) curfew on a Sunday on March 22. This was a sort of a mock drill preceding the main event. Just to encourage people in the fight against the novel virus, he urged people to stay at home and to blow conch shells, ring bells, ring plates from the balconies in the evening and to appreciate the work of healthcare workers. Similar incident was repeated on the evening of April 6 when people were told to switch off their light at nine in the evening for nine minutes and light diyas (lamps) or candles or mobile phone torch light. It did work to encourage people in the midst of complete shutdown.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created global panic. This is a relatively new strain of virus and we have little knowledge of its spread and the damage it can cause. We are not sure about how long will it continue. The pandemic has brought the global economy to a standstill. Even the highly developed countries are finding it hard to cope up and are trying to meet the minimum basic needs of their people. Whereas the developed world may be able to feed its population for months in this crisis, but for the developing world it is going to be a horrendous task.

One indirect result of the Covid-19 outbreak is the further vindication of the metamorphosis of the technology companies from private sector profit-earning units to the status of essential public utility services.

All kudos to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her government for inspiring a global advisory board, constituted of some highly well-known experts in diverse fields, to help build resistance against coronavirus in the state while working on post-lockdown speedy recovery of the state’s economy. The eight-member board is headed by Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee. Other members include a former director, Communicable Diseases, WHO; former head of the US Centres for Disease Control & Prevention; former union health secretary; public health policy expert and a lead World Bank economist. West Bengal is one of the states which is trying hard to strike a balance between lockdown and life of the poor, daily wage earners and farmers.

Many believe and several political minds want people to believe that China conspired to export the corona virus to the rest of the world. But for the first time, governments in nation after nation have made their people to cower in fear with the easiest solution by clamping the lockdown on all activities to force people to stay in their homes and thus shun the potential infection through close contacts. Nations have fought several pandemics and epidemics in the last twenty years of this century and many wars in the previous century to fight other evils. The human toll in two world wars was much more than the current toll but humans were made to fight the evil with courage. Science has made many earthshaking inventions in the last half the century that ought to have given courage to mankind to face any other kind of evil. But politicians and heir administrations found an easier solution in terrorizing their people to shut themselves inside their homes. The claim is the enemy was deadly and can cause more damage in terms of deaths.

BHOPAL: Though many new cases of Covid-19 have been reported both in Bhopal and Indore, at the same time the number of patients leaving hospitals after recovery is also increasing in both the cities. Twelve patients were discharged in Indore yesterday, taking the total number of recovered patients to 27. But there is also bad news from Indore – two doctors died despite all efforts to treat them.

Recently, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu stated: “Between the consideration of health of the people and stabilisation of our economy being debated, the former shall take precedence over the later. In my view, while the concern of economy can wait for another day, that of health can’t”. No doubt health care is important and the government should have a clear health policy through which the Public Health System can be strengthened and every citizen of the country should be ensured proper health care. But the country also can’t ignore the fact that according to the Mumbai-based think-tank the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment data in the country in March rose to 8.7 percent, the highest for the month in 43 years. This unemployment figure includes the sample of daily wage, salaried employees, construction workers, MGNREGS workers and agriculture labourers. The sample under-represented the section of migrant workers.

There has to be the proverbial silver lining in shadows of dark gloomy clouds. Amidst starvation and deprivation, there is the threat of not only a killer disease, but also a life to be lived on the edges. Vast masses of people walking on foot, covering hundreds of miles not only away from Corona, but also from the looming crisis, of cashless existence. The economic survey in 2016 reported that upto 77th percentile population live at subsistence level spending whatever they earn. They do not have access to formal loan, hence the dependence on the usurer, which turns them into slaves. The bleak future offers them no optimism, as in post lock down phase, the real wages are going to be less and lost wages go almost out of bounds.

The world population crossed the estimated number of 7780 million on April 9, 2020 and number of infected by the Corona virus on the day was not even close to 1.50 million though panic in the developed world was unprecedented. No one knew or even cared to know the extent of damage caused by the infection of the pandemic in the undeveloped world of Africa. Beyond the dispute, however, is the reality that India handled the crisis more efficiently and competently than the most regimes in the developed world. India, led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his administrative set up, moved before the virus impact could turn into new epidemic and people cooperated wholly. Even poor sections of 600 million did not defy the lockdown directive even though hunger was stalking through their huts due to loss of their daily earnings and of their ability to get meals.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The battle against the dreaded corona virus is far from over. There is still a long way to go. But there is no denying the gains Kerala has made in the relentless fight against the virus.