Right now, it would not be wrong to say that the Devil’s or rather Apocalypse’s four horsemen are on their way. In fact, one could say that Pestilence is well into its way to creating some amount of chaos?
Biblical references aside, we could very well be staring at long and hard times. In an interview with Barkha Dutt, epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan, on March 21, predicted that India will have 30-50 crore cases of the coronavirus.
The doctor also predicted that India could be looking at more than 2 million deaths, especially if our healthcare system is unprepared. He also indicated that most of them losing lives will be above the age of 60.
But, what about the economic class of those affected? Is the situation really similar to, as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi pointed out, captain of the Titanic asking passengers not to panic? What did happen on the Titanic eventually? The unsinkable ship sank, killing 1,517 people. Of these, 832 were passengers and 685 crew members. About 83 per cent of the men belonging to the third class section on the ship and 53 per cent of women, lost their lives. In comparison, 67 per cent men from the first class and 2.7 per cent of women in first class, died. The divide is evident, isn't it?
For a ship of its size—weighing 46,000 tonnes and carrying 2,222 passengers—Titanic carried only 20 life boats and each life boat could carry around 40 people. This meant that the fates of more than 1,300 people were doomed right from the start, if the ship were to meet with a disaster.
Cut to India. Current availability of ventilators in India is between 30,000 and 50,000. Countries like UK and US are predicting acute shortage of ventilators, should the number of COVID-19 cases rise. In fact, while in UK, hairdryer company Dyson has stepped up to make ventilators, in the US, Rolls Royce and Ford will manufacture ventilators. In India, the Union government has, reportedly, reached out to Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), Hyundai Motor India, Honda Cars India and Maruti Suzuki India to explore the possibility of making ventilators at their plants.
In light of such a situation, which section of the population is likely to be saved, especially in a country with approximately 133.92 crore citizens? COVID-19 or not, daily wagers and oppressed groups like Dalits are already shortchanged. In June 2018, a 13-year old in Lucknow was beaten up for wearing mojris or what was known as footwear for the upper caste. Such discriminatory crimes take place almost on an everyday basis in India. Twenty-seven per cent of India’s population lives in poverty. Of these, 33 per cent belong to the lower caste. Since the lockdown has been imposed, wages have dried up for about 12 crore migrant labourers, says a report in Gulf News. They are unable to afford food or rent and scores of them have been walking hundreds of kilometres to reach their hometowns amid the crisis. This clearly means that they are in violation of the rules of lockdown. But, what option do they have?
India is not just a highly populated nation, but also a densely populated one. It is, in fact, among the top 25 most-densely populated countries. Top-most densely populated cities and states in India are Delhi, Chandigarh, Puducherry followed by Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep and Bihar. And in some of these regions, there are as many as 2,500 people living per square km, according to census data from 2011.
One of the top recommendations by health experts to prevent the fast-spreading COVID-19 is social distancing—this will seem like an impossible task in these densely populated regions. Then there are also the homeless and those who lived in cramped conditions in hutments.
The government has a healthcare plan for those living Below the Poverty Line. As per the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, an annual cover of only Rs 30,000 is given to poor families at an average premium of Rs 500 paid per policy. Government spending in the public health sector is really low—4.7 per cent of its GDP is spent on public health, reads a World Bank report. There is one hospital bed for every 2,046 people in government hospitals and one government hospital for every 90,343 people, as per a report by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence released in 2017.
According to the Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in 2018, the quality of healthcare in India is lacking—about 122 Indians per 100,000 die each year in the country due to poor quality of healthcare.
When it came to healthcare access in India, according to the Global Burden of Disease study published in Lancet in 2017, India ranked 154 out of 195 nations.
This brings us to the question—when things do get worse in a pandemic of this scale, is the government really prepared to care for all Indians—especially, the poorer sections?
On Monday, a large group of migrant workers was given a ‘chemical bath’ upon their return to Bareilly in UP. Workers, including women and children, were bathed in sodium hypochlorite (a disinfectant used by civic bodies for sanitation). The district magistrate of Bareilly then admitted that the act was indeed wrong as the chemical compound was not for use on humans.
Won't they be given more such ‘treatment’ as the days go by and if the pandemic picks up?
But, like the captain of the Titanic said, “Don’t Panic!”
