By HH Mohrmen
Hundreds of people across the nation are literarily gasping for breath for the lack of oxygen supply and lost their lives due to fresh attack of COVID-19. People have also suffered because of the shortage of hospital beds and non-availability of ventilators and life-saving drugs. The numbers of people who suffered and died has increased many fold than in the last year and the question in the minds of those who in the process lost their loved ones and the general public too, is, ‘why is this happening?
When the country is said to be progressing in leaps and bounds in all spheres of life, we have not only failed to handle the pandemic but we have sadly surrendered our fates to the disease. The situation in the state is no better. Last year in this column just at the beginning of the pandemic, this scribe had questioned the preparedness of the State for any kind of pandemic attack. Sadly this time too the same question arises. After the last year’s COVID-19 attack and the kind of experiences we had, the question again is, how prepared is the government for a situation like this. The answer to this question has come from the head of Health Department in the state, who recently confirmed that the health facilities available in the state will not be able to handle even a hundred serious COVID-19 cases.
Despite the available scientific evidence predicting the inevitable second wave attack of a mutated form of Covid the fact remains that even after the lapse of one year we have not been able to improve our health care system in the state. Of course it is not possible to improve the entire health systems at one go, but is the government prepared for the second virus attack. With scientific evidence predicting the second wave of COVID-19 attack, we could have at least prepared for this imminent threat. Unfortunately in spite of the experiences and the learnings from last year, the government is obviously not prepared for the second wave. The question then is if we are prepared for (god forbid) the attack like the other states in the country are experiencing now?
The question that begs the answer is whether the government has increased the number of hospital beds or at least made arrangements for temporary hospitals in the eventuality of the second wave. How many ventilators has the government procured since last year? How many government (Civil) hospitals have ventilators? Or to be precise do we even have ventilators in the different CHCs? How many ambulances do we have in the entire state and do we have at least one ambulance at every CHC? Do we have enough oxygen supply or do we even have a plan of how we will acquire oxygen if the attack hits the state hard? These are all basic requirements which the health department should have thought through of and prepare itself for and the state for the eventuality.
Since this scribe’s area of interest is indigenous culture, the other pertinent question is with regards to the preparedness of the traditional institutions in the eventuality of the second wave of COVID-19 attack. The traditional institutions particularly the offices of the different dorbar (c)shnong at least in the Khasi Jañtia hills region of the state, deserve a pat on the back for their responses to the pandemic attack last year. Yet it is only organisations like the Unitarian Chuch, Jowai which during its anniversary celebration last year honoured the President of the Synjuk ki Waheh Chnong, Jowai on behalf of the entire conglomeration for their stellar service supporting the Government in its fight against the pandemic. The Government on the other hand has done precious little to recognise the contribution s that the institutions have made last year.
Leave the gesture aside, the government has not even documented the different contributions that the dorbar shnong has made to support the state in its battle against the unseen enemy. The document would have been a learning for other indigenous people around the world and an opportunity for the state and its people to showcase to the world the relevance of our traditional institutions in combating modern diseases. Unfortunately after the peak of the corona virus attack last year, our Government was busy in facilitating illegal transport of coal which only helps fill the pockets of few individual. In one of our zoom meetings, Phrang Roy of the Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership Movement in Rome said that government and people in other countries have learned from the first attack and they were prepared for the expected second wave, but the central and the state government of our country were caught in an embarrassing situation.
One is busy winning states and the other winning the Garo Hills District Council election and turning a blind eye to the looting of the state’s treasury in broad day light. The State Government is also busy building and repairing a ten ton capacity bridge which obviously cannot stand the weight of overloaded trucks which pass through the highway every day. Yet the different weighbridges and the police personnel manning the highways allow overloaded trucks to pass through the highways and obviously after their palms have been greased. The illegal act was possible because of the unholy nexus between the police, some pressure groups (ïada jaidbynriew), and the different government agencies. It is ironic that while the countries of the world were collectively fighting the pandemic, those in the nexus in the state had of course taken the phrase ‘we are all in this together’ in a totally new direction.
Phrang Roy also reminded the audience in the web meeting that this is the time to learn and relearn how community solidarity has been the bedrock which has stood the test of time for the Jaidbynriew especially in trying times like this. We have seen how the office of the dorbar (c)shnongs effectively supported the Government during the last pandemic attack and it is time to look and study how other institutions and different aspects of the society face the different modern problems. We need to understand which part of our tribal culture, principle or way of life of the Khasi Pnar helped us tide through these difficult times.
With regards to food the pandemic attack and the subsequent lockdown has taught the people one simple but important lesson, that kitchen gardens which every household in the rural areas had maintained had stood them in good stead. The simple kitchen garden in which they grow almost everything they need has helped them sail through the lockdown because of last year’s pandemic. Add to that the wild edibles they forage from the nearby forests and the two had supplemented the vegetable and fruit needs of the people particularly those in the rural areas. The simple rural way of life with multiple livelihood practices has helped the rural folks see through this difficult time. If the coronavirus pandemic has anything to teach the indigenous people, it is to rely on our traditional practices. If people are smarter, they should take the opportunity to improve these institutions and the indigenous way of life which has helped them face the challenges last year.
W.H.O. reported that corona virus has mutated and the virus in India now is different from the virus which attacked the world last year. It is also reported that we now have at least two new virus strains in India and the dreaded one is the variant which has double mutation. The question is while the virus mutated and changed itself, the country and the State remained static in this front. Both the states and the country were complacent and caught unprepared for the second attack. The virus is obviously much smarter than all of us including the state and the country as a whole.
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