By Rudi V Warjri
The compulsion for radical anti Covid 19 measures had made Prime Minister Narendra Modi call for a nation-wide ‘Lockdown’ commencing Tuesday March 24, for twenty one days ending April 14. Some Chief Ministers had complained about not being consulted before the Lockdown was announced. Then assuming reason and guilt for the unprecedented chaos and untold sufferings of the exodus of migrants labourers the PM condescended and apologized publicly on his weekly radio broadcast maan ki baat .
On Thursday April 2, the PM had a videoconferencing with the Chief Ministers of all the States. Not all Chief Ministers were present. The PM spoke about the need for a common exit strategy after the Lockdown ends on April 14. To ensure staggered movement of the population he also asked for suggestions.
This is cooperative federalism (which is the basis for the creation of the NITI-Aayog) in action. Government of India can announce the best measures in the world. The actual implementation however, of at least 80% of those measures inescapably, rests on the states. Will the collaboration of resources , energy and efforts between the Centre and the states lead to an institutionalization of a more collegial functioning cutting across party lines?
Coming to priorities of the Government, the famous sage of India, Swami Vivekananda had said, “Heart is a very good fertilizer ; anything we plant – love, hate, fear, hope, revenge , jealousy – surely , grows and bears fruit. We have to decide what to harvest.”
The Government National Health Policy 2017 had envisaged a health budget of 2.5% of GDP. The actual spending in 2019 was a mere 1.6%. 4.6% was spent on Education. Several schemes and health programmes were launched by the Government such as health insurance ; leprosy eradication ; iron and folic acid supplementation to curb the problem of adolescent anaemia among girls; mental health, financial assistance to poor patients suffering from specified life threatening diseases, health care of the elderly etc. A programme to correct regional imbalances in the availability of affordable and reliable tertiary health care services and to augment facilities for quality medical education were also laid out .
Indeed, Prime Minister Modi also deserves credit for being the first Prime Minister to recognize the importance of hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness in India, especially the indignity faced by millions of women in rural areas having to defecate in the open. Consequently, it has also got reflected in Government policies and actions.
As such, linked to Public Health are also schemes and programmes pertaining to sanitation and cleanliness, drinking water etc., because they also impact on the overall public health quality. Prominent among them is the internationally recognized Swachh Bharat Mission. Its principal aim is to have an Open Defecation Free (ODF) India. Its rural component is called the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen). Then the Swachhata Pakhwada focuses on issues and practices of Swachhata ( leading to a healthy and prosperous life) that includes curbing of single use plastics.
The apex body overlooking all matters pertaining to Medical Research in India is the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It acts through several specific and specialist branch institutes across the country that include the National Institute of Virology and National Institute of Epidemiology .
Covid 19 has nonetheless exposed the gross inadequacies of the Public Health system in India. Bureaucrats of the country who have been part of running the system came out in the open and proclaimed that there is a huge gap between demand and availability of health care infrastructure to combat the spread of Covid 19. It appeared in the “National Preparedness Survey Covid 19” report submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office by District Collectors from 410 Districts. They mentioned the shortfall of testing kits, ventilators, masks and protective gear.
Has there been enough funding in Virology, Epidemiology , Immunology and Microbiology? If the Government believes that Science and Technology is the ultimate answer to Covid 19, then has there ever been a discussion in Parliament on the issue? Or did the system suffer from a skewed mindset that focused more on issues which created communal and sectarian divides and unrest? Could not the Rs 3000 crore spent on the statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel have been spent on Virology and those institutions and related schemes and programmes named after him? If India is a secular nation why should the Government and public treasury be involved in construction of religious institutions and similar activities? Also experts have said that India cannot match the resources of developed nations but it has the capabilities to match policies.
Hopefully, lessons can be learned. Take Covid 19 to be a kind of nemesis to any hubris of the past. Make the Swacchata movement into a law through an act of Parliament. Enforce stringent penalties for any abuse of public spaces like spitting, throwing garbage, littering and dirtying of any kind which are the reasons for the spread of most infectious diseases. This is a definite way of minimizing other possible epidemics in future.
Extraordinary situations demand extraordinary solutions. Before the Covid 19 outbreak, India’s GDP had already been declining. Economists that included Nobel laureates have now made their proposals to raise the financial package from 1.7 lakh crores (1 % of GDP) to 7 lakh crores (4% – 5 % of GDP) . That includes massive outlay on medical services and financial assistance and free disbursement of the 60 million tonnes of food grain stocks to the needy. Besides, other supplementary measures like not laying off of workers by big business houses and subsidies to small and medium businesses would help revive the economy.
Now about the remote Northeast of India, one should compliment the Government of India for extending whatever support in terms of supply chains ranging from health and medical necessities to food and other essentials. The fact is also that Mr Modi is the first Prime Minister to have made maximum visits to the Northeast – an action which has added to national integration in more ways than one.
The question now is what can the States in the Northeast learn from the Covid 19 crisis. They should begin to accept that the mai-baab sarkar policy that the Center has been extending will not be the same again. More because of change in compulsive circumstances than indifference of any kind! India will take a long time in picking up the pieces post Covid 19. The days of exemption from paying taxes under the Sixth Schedule may also be truncated. It’s time for the Northeast States to reinvent themselves. Tourism as the mainstay of the Northeast will take time to revive. One thought is to encourage IT and Digital related ventures and make use of the available young talent that have returned from other parts of India and abroad.
There are also disconcerting issues concerning the Northeast which affect national integration. North-easterners have been called Coronavirus. Notorious among the incidents was the humiliating spitting of paan on a woman from Manipur in Delhi and the denial of groceries in Bangalore to some students from Nagaland. Kudos to the prompt action being taken by the respective State Governments! In the long run, however, Government of India should start implementing the Bezbaruah Committee report 2014 in full without any further delay.
To conclude, the Corona Virus simply started as a molecule and turned into a living organism. The reality however, is that the fear it has created on our collective consciousness is of a Tarrasque dimension, given that the spikes of the Corona Virus are also similar to that of a Tarrasque. Our Public Health system therefore should equally match the health threats. (This may be read with my article earlier on Life Post Covid 19 – Preparing for the Changes )
(The writer is a former diplomat)