COVID-19 has spurred many moments. Moments that in turn raise many questions about opportunity and disadvantage, locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. With a year gone by since the announcement of the lockdown and a ‘second wave’ statedly hovering over the horizon, it is time to put out the questions and reflect and for government to recalibrate policies, programmes and schemes, with fresh points of reference, both for prevention and treatment of COVID-19, as well as for addressing concerns left ostensibly in its trail.
To start with, given the politics of science and scientists and the health care professionals, an ordinary non-scientist, non-health care professional like me, has no way to verify all that is being said about COVID-19, its ‘creation’, the reasons for the virus acquiring pandemic proportions, the efficacy of the ‘vaccine’ and the possible consequences of getting vaccinated. It seems like the jury is still out on not just the new questions, but the old ones too.
Was it created? Or…..? Why did a virus, which is like a common cold virus, which is advisedly prevented by washing hands with soap and inhalation and use of sanitizer, acquire pandemic proportions and result in so many deaths. Why were the statistics not presented in a standardized way in conformity with health administration units, or general administration units at the local self governmental level? There were IAS officers manning these places. So what prevented them from being upfront and straightforward about the statistics?
A pandemic calls for a humane response. Even if police are used, could they not have been directed to turn their lathi into a pointer stick directing and guiding people. Could the police not have been directed to refrain from making the lathi the usual weapon to scare away people, that too, poor people who cannot afford to keep monthly stocks and were foraging for food? Could the police not have been assisting the street vendors to sell products by marking and guiding people to stand at safe distance and get their stock?
Can we not, a year later, work on the hard lessons learnt from the dependency on neighbouring areas for purchase of vegetable stock? Can we not revive farming, and prevent more problems for farmers, with the farmer laws and the infrastructure projects that are killing the fields and forests and taking away our lives, livelihoods and resources? Can the Government not address drainage and sewage problems resulting from criminal random discharge of sewage and random blockage of drainage by real estate projects, merely to pander to the real estate lobby? Can the Government not understand that co-morbidities and vulnerable conditions will only increase with flooding of areas and infestation, due to blocked drainage and indiscriminate sewage discharge? Who will bell the cat, when local self government representatives are themselves hand in glove with the real estate lobby and turn the other way when illegalities are committed by developers?
Yes, courts can be approached, but they are also limited by time and social distancing constraints. Still, can the Courts be innovative and prioritise? The Courts have what are called direction matters. Are matters supposed to be direction matters only because of the number of years they are pending, and because some people could approach the High Court for a direction to dispose off the matter early? Are not domestic violence and maintenance matters supposed to be also treated as direction matters, when it comes to awarding of maintenance. What has the State done to prevent stigmatization, while providing necessary assistance? What has the State done to assure that there is adequate infrastructure and enough health professionals and trained personnel to deal with the pandemic? What has the State done to prevent inequalities in the impacts of the pandemic, where those with financial limitations did not even have a choice to treat their loved ones appropriately or to enable their children to have their rightful access to education? Where were the relief packages for the local workers and entrepreneurs in small and medium industrial units and tourism and catering sectors, who were badly hit by the lockdown, due to the special operating procedures in place? Why did it need the pressures from civil society and legal services authority to keep the shelters for migrants open, and to have organized requisitioning of trains in compliance with Supreme Court Judgements? Why did migrants have to take the long walk home, as those graphic pictures showed us? Why did they suffer from lack of proper food supplies in the trains, and pitiable conditions in the shelters?
Why are gram sabhas that were not held in the name of SOPs and COVID 19 prevention, still not being conducted, while projects that have no urgency whatsoever are being passed and plodded ahead with? Why are we still persisting with an infrastructure and development model that will exacerbate our dependency on neighbouring states, and rob us of our basic necessary resources? Why are we having to stare at a Major Port Trust Authority Act, whose jurisdiction leaves us at the whims of the Port Trust Authority which will plan the area as per the requirements of the industrialists like Adani, who see fishing nets and boats as a safety hazard and security concern for their business activities? Why have the ecological consequences of the infrastructure projects not been subjected to the necessary assessment and public hearing and people’s vote courtesy the 73rd and 74th Amendments? How has the Government correlated the survey it conducted towards revival of the economy, with the planning and budgeting? Why is there no sign of revival of the local people, and only legal sanction to illegalities in the name of ‘bhoomiputra’?
So long as these fundamental questions are not addressed, we cannot hope to face the pandemic head on.
(Albertina Almeida is a lawyer and human rights activist)