With Covid-19 infections touching new peaks at about 4 lakh per day and day-to-day deaths at about 4,000, India appears to have landed itself ideal in the eye of the storm. With no more beds in hospitals and dire shortage of oxygen, and unending waits at the crematoriums and graveyards, panic in public is all-natural. But, sadly, the governments, each at the Centre and in most states, seemed to have lost manage. While political rivals are busy blaming every single other, quite a few vultures are producing cash by means of black-advertising and marketing of oxygen and remdesivir injections, indicating a collapse of governance. Whether elections rallies triggered all this or kumbh celebrations with mass congregations can be settled later. The truth is who could judge in February-March of 2021 that a tsunami of Covid was prepared to hit India. The accompanying graphic shows the total quantity of day-to-day infections had been constantly coming down given that the peak of September 2020. That led to complacency, each at the government level as properly as in the basic public. Recall how thousands of farmers thronged Delhi borders in November-finish 2020, and they had been currently protesting in big numbers in Punjab against the new farm laws. Nobody stated at that time that they could be possible super-spreaders of Covid infections. In truth, quite a few opposition parties supported and fanned that. Then came the New Year Eve, and about 45 lakh folks are reported to have visited Goa to celebrate.
Many of them I know of came back infected. Still no one raised any red flags. Then came Makar Sankranti, Lohri, Pongal, and so forth, celebrations in mid-January, followed by Holi in March-finish. While Maharashtra had began displaying distress signals, but it was not as alarming in other states. Come April, and hell appears to have broken loose. And that is when politicians had been busy with elections and Hindu saints in kumbh. Should there have been a nationwide lockdown at that time, as was accomplished last year by the prime minister with 4 hours of notice on March 24, 2020? This will stay an open query for quite a few to talk about and debate. But, now, when we are in the midst of this cyclonic storm, we have to do our most effective to save as quite a few lives as feasible by placing our shoulders to the wheel.
What can be accomplished now? First and foremost is calming the panicked public. Our elected representatives will need to be in their constituencies, calming and assisting folks, rather than holing up in their comfy residences. National leadership has to have a war-space, comprising major health-related professionals, corporate leaders that can ramp up the supplies of oxygen and vital drugs, logistics players to provide the last mile, and so forth. They will need to address the nation at least twice a week and share the truth of the illness, the testing, the price of infections and deaths taking location. People are losing trust in politicians and bureaucrats who are attempting to hide the reality. We are losing more folks to Covid than we have ever lost in any war. So, the response has to be as it is in instances of war, as ICRIER chairman Pramod Bhasin stated in one of his most up-to-date interviews. If there is any consolation, it is that deaths in India per million population is nevertheless way behind Brazil, the UK, the US, France and even the world.
Nevertheless, provided our sheer numbers, it is time for every single one of us to place our shoulders to the wheel. Corporate sector has currently come forward, diverting oxygen from steel and cement manufacturing to health-related use. The government can take a step forward, saying that at least half of the CSR funds of the corporate sector be made use of for ramping up wellness infrastructure in the nation for the next 2-3 years. RBI has come up with a loan package of `50,000 crore, which will be treated as priority sector lending. Remember, Covid has now reached rural regions, exactly where wellness facilities are quite poor. The devastation in rural regions can be significantly more than in mega-cities like Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru. Can our corporate leaders adopt major wellness centres (PHCs) in rural regions and in Tier II/III towns, pump in sources from CSR funds and bank loans, and upgrade wellness facilities? And state governments need to let them to have an equal say in managing these PHCs. Can social reformers, NGOs, religious leaders, and even health-related students come forward with monetary and physical aid and also convince folks that there is no option but to get vaccination as quickly as feasible. People in quite a few rural regions that I know of nevertheless resist having vaccinated. There is dearth of understanding and trust. These corporate, social and religious leaders have ample encounter in operating their big enterprises or managing their followers, operating into lakhs and crores, and can come quite handy in collating details, providing greater health-related guidance, enabling vaccination and saving their lives and livelihoods. But government requirements to provide a framework for their helpful participation in this hard hour. There is no dearth of superior folks and organisations in this nation to contribute their bit, supplied they trust that it will be made use of for the superior of folks. By joining hands, we can turn the tables immediately and this crisis can aid India emerge stronger.
The author is Infosys chair professor of agriculture, ICRIER