The 3-week lockdown beginning March 24 has different impacts on different people depending on their socio-economic statuses. A lockdown while necessary to combat the dreaded Covid19 pandemic has inflicted the worst nightmare on the poor for whom staying at home is not an option. The lockdown is a privilege for those whose salaries are assured. But an unprecedented pandemic that has killed close to 83,000 people worldwide cannot be treated with complacency. India has had to take this painful decision of enforcing a lockdown. But the Nizamuddin Tabligi Jamaat incident has shown up our vulnerabilities as a country whose citizens put religion above country. Consequently some parts of the country have today become Covid hotspots, something that could have been avoided with a little foresight and without the distraction brought about by the visit of US President Donald Trump, which as far as the citizenry of India is concerned was devoid of substance.
India is now on the last leg of the lockdown and indications are that the country will go through a phased ‘unlocking’ depending on the vulnerabilities. Several Chief Ministers of states that are battling Covid19 have requested the Prime Minister to continue the lockdown until April end. The PM might take a call sooner than later. There is an element of uncertainty in the air. In Meghalaya, the Government has laid out an exit plan which will free the farming community and labourers from the lockdown since this is the sowing and transplanting season. Already farmers have faced a huge setback and seed availability at this juncture could be the undoing of the agricultural sector. But the central and state governments are seized of the matter and will hopefully address farmers’ contingency needs.
It is in the area of education that the State might face the biggest challenge. The State Government has already announced that schools will remain closed until April 30. This means students have lost nearly 40 days of schooling. Finals examinations have been postponed and students pursuing the national curriculum still have to write their last three or four papers. The urban schools have got their students into the e-learning mode which requires a computer or smart-phone and internet connectivity with sufficient speed. Forget about the e-learning programmes which elite schools have many options for, it’s the connectivity in the rural hinterland that is the problem. Students in the rural outback will be left far behind their urban counterparts. Inequality will creep in and states will have to deal with new sets of problems as the urban-rural divide in mindset creeps in. This is something that the State Education Department will have to address in right earnest. A brainstorm on this is called for with e-learning experts.