Cordoning corona pandemic: Unorganized workers 'highly vulnerable' to infection

By Dr S Jayaprakash, Bharathy, Dr Simi Mehta, Dr Balwant Singh Mehta, Dr Arjun Kumar, Dr Manish Priyadarshi*
We have had an information overdose on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), possible precautions, and treatments from this infection. The major facilitator for this has been the print, electronic and social media. This article focuses on the need for next level planning that is needed to protect the unorganized and informal labourers and those at the bottom of the ladder in India. Ascertaining these measures will answer the basic question whether the humanity still retains its rationality.

Impact on human and economic health

In the past, various parts of the world have frequently been gripped by spread of different epidemics. Along with mortality, the fear psychosis of succumbing to the epidemic has often had negative consequences on the overall economy. For instance, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which infected 500 million people, which was about quarter of world population at that point of time.
It has been just four months of the outbreak of COVID-19 from Wuhan City in Hubei province of China, and over 300,000 confirmed cases of infections and has cost around 17,000 human lives. However, the panic and paranoia that has ensued can be linked to majorly unscientific and baseless information circulating on social media- the access to which most Indians have.
The livelihood of daily wagers, self-employed and lower middle classes have already begun to be hit hard due to the panic and preventive measures and it will take several months to restore normalcy in their lives. As per the latest available official statistics, The Economic Survey of 2018-19, released on July 4, 2019, says "almost 93%" of the total workforce is 'informal' and major measures put forward by national and state government is for the organized sector.

As India moves from stage 2 to stage 3 or 4 of COVID-19, only affluent sections will be able to receive treatment from available options

Though Government has advised the private sector to ensure that salaries to their employees are paid during these trying times, the fate of unorganized labourers will be a pity here as neither they have such employer relationship nor they have enough funds or access to government facilities (which will always be crowded) to take care of the health needs of their families and themselves.
The health infrastructure of India is inadequate and inept. It is evident through the following insights: as per the national health profile, 2019, there are 7.14 lakh government hospital beds available in the country, which turns out to just less than about 6 beds per 10,000 population.

Senior citizens (60 years and above) are more vulnerable to coronavirus, the availability of beds for elderly population is again just 52 beds per 10,000 population. At least 5-10 % of the patients will need ventilator support, and however, only of the government hospital beds only 5-8% have ICU beds, assuming all ICU beds have ventilator we arrive at 30 to 35 thousand ICU beds to cater the growing number of coronavirus patients.
As India moves from stage 2 to stage 3 or 4 of the COVID-19, those who are affluent will be able to receive treatment from different available options. But it the public health facilities and the government hospitals that are the last resort for the informal labour force and those belonging to the lower middle class.

The question whether the meagre allocation of INR 69,000 crore for the health sector- just 1% of GDP be sufficient to take care of the health care needs during pandemic? Similarly, the Ayushman Bharat scheme allocation that has been slashed from the previous year’s INR 6400 crore to INR 3200 crore in 2020-21 will be a peanut to tackle this national health emergency like COVID-19.
The labourers of lower middle class and unorganized labourers are highly vulnerable to get infected and they are the people whom every Indian citizen in one way or other will be contacting at least once in a day, thus transmission through them is highly possible when it comes to pandemics.

The Ayushman Bharat scheme allocation will be a peanut to tackle this national health emergency like COVID-19

Considering this grim situation predicted to worsen in the coming days, India needs to augment its actions to protect these sections of the population. Some of the important areas of urgent government intervention are:
A) Funds for their health: Apart from the allocated funds for their health under various schemes, government can consider the following:

All unused funds that has accumulated by the way of cess/levy, a portion of it can be diverted to focus on their health urgently.
Swachh Bharat fund, education cess etc.
ESIC, EPFO funds.

B) Funds for their livelihood: It needs to be understood that majority of package initiated by Government of India are for organized sector and the so unorganized sector remains ignored. For those who have migrated back to their villages in absence of work, no announcements for relief have been made at this time of health exigency. To cater to this challenge, the government must explore funding options, for example:

While the government claims that financial inclusion has reached a recorded percentages and direct beneficiary transfer mechanisms are in place already, it is time for the insurance industry to plan for a temporary job loss insurance to cater to such pandemics, through Jan Dhan accounts, MUDRA loans, etc.
Such social insurance is possible and even feasible through a government reinsurance mechanism as well.
During the normal period, a small money can be bundled along with the bank fees and deposited for such insurance. It can be partially funded by Central and State Governments as well.
The pattern of pandemics happens once in several decades and that can give a good corpus for paying a small amount to the unorganized e.g. Rs. 2000 per week per person of job loss or shut down.
As it is done through social reinsurance treaty, the risk is spread throughout the world.
This is the best time to launch such insurance product when 90% of the world countries are facing shutdown for few weeks, best time to realize for the need for such insurance product. It will go a long way in generating the much-needed trust with the functioning of government mechanisms.

C) Technological framework focused on them (scalable for other segments of population): While we feel proud to develop so many applications, there is no use if we have not yet developed a technological framework to alert human beings when any threats that can wipe out the entire human race is in place. When barriers of access are broken in technology, it produces wonderful results through creative ideas and innovations.

COVID-19 has provided us the thought to think again about our development and redo it in sync with sustainable development

Even in the case of coronavirus, the first case was suspected during the first week of November. In this situation, a text mining algorithm could have easily located such news and disseminated to the entire world through Application Programming Interface (API) or through an SMS blast, which could have alerted people to control the epidemic within the Great Wall of China.
Almost all the hospitals in India have their own applications and tech support systems in place. The government must make it mandatory to share a list of diseases and cases on regular basis through API for continuous analysis of data and machine learning perspective to understand the trend, whenever the analysis or predictive models sense any alarming range, it should do a SMS blast to respective stakeholders.
Integrated disease surveillance system needs to be revamped to cater the needs and magnitude of COVID-19. Today, our surveillance system is trying hard to counter the local transmission with the limited usage of technology.

Conclusion

Though many big nations are having nuclear bombs that are more powerful than the one blasted in World War II, usage is restricted as it has the potential to take back our civilization by at least 50 years.

Similarly, though we have all the economic applications (i.e. products like social insurance, cess/levy concepts, financial inclusion, human medical applications like Artificial Intelligence robots, medical devices etc. and technological applications (like machine learning, SMS blast, cloud concepts etc.), living on the illusion of the permanence of living systems will eventually prove to be a bane as the government fails to coordinate and cooperate with its citizens.

COVID-19 has provided us the thought to think again about our development and redo it in sync with sustainable development, not just in words but also in deeds.
---
*With the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi

Comments

'Halt Covid-19 vaccination drive': Indian doctors join campaign across 36 nations

By Rosamma Thomas* A group of Spanish doctors first got together to call for a halt to the Covid-19 vaccinations, and doctors from other countries too later joined them – there are now over 12,000 doctors from India, Portugal, Canada, Hungary, South Africa, Israel and a host of other nations who have issued a call to halt vaccinations. On September 10, a group of Indian doctors came together to address the press over a webinar to explain why they thought the vaccination drive should end forthwith. Dr Amitav Banerjee, who after a career as an epidemiologist in the Indian Army now teaches at a private medical college in Pune, said there was no longer a medical emergency. Children are at low risk of infection, and there is good reason to halt vaccination and conduct proper research, given the high number of adverse events. There is a sudden and poorly explained spike in the number of young and healthy people dying. While it may be impossible to attribute deaths entirely to the vaccinatio

Did Mother Teresa trivialise poverty? 'You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you'

By Harsh Thakor* The world commemorated the 25th death anniversary of Mother Teresa on September 5. Whatever her flaws, she rendered service to humanity in regions almost untranscended, resembling the relentless spirit of the waves of an ocean. Irrespective of community or religion, she offered her service. Even those not drawn by sainthood revere the role of Mother Teresa. For 68 years, she had worked selflessly and tirelessly in India and elsewhere in the world, taught the destitute, healed the sick, fed and clothed the poor, cared for abandoned children, housed lepers and those afflicted with HIV/AIDS and offered dignity in death to desolate persons abandoned by family and society. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje in 1910 to an Albanian family as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She became wedded to religious vows at an early age and moved to India to join the missionary work of the Catholic Church. Heartshaken by the misery faced by the Indian masses, in 1950 she set up her own

Tracing roots of Hindutva Zionism: cannon fodder for 'warped' nationalist pretensions

By Shamsul Islam* Those who believe in a world free of hegemonic ethno-nationalism, racism, religious bigotry and hatred have rightly taken note of Zionism and its ally Christian Zionism, major perpetrators of ethnic cleansing of ‘Others’. However, the civilized world with its core belief in multi-culturalism and peaceful co-existence is oblivious to a no less dangerous threat to the present human civilization: the Hindutva Zionism. As the term reads it is part of the Hindutva world-view which stands for an exclusive Hindu India minus Muslims and Christians. The other religions like Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism will have no independent status but treated as part of Hinduism. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS; National Volunteer Organization) is the most prominent flag-bearer of the Hindutva politics whose cadres presently rule India, the largest democracy in the world. RSS was founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889-1940) in 1925 who was disillusioned with the Indian freedom st

Regional parties, anti-Congress progressives, civil society groups 'joining' Bharat Jodo

By Harshavardhan Purandare, Sandeep Pandey* The Congress party declared Bharat Chhodo (Quit India) movement against the British regime in 1942. The Congress party has now launched a movement Bharat Jodo (Connecting and Uniting India) against the Modi regime in 2022. Indian people have had a journey of 80 years since Mahatma Gandhi gave that Quit India call to the British and we have to agree that we stand most divided in our modern history when Rahul Gandhi is giving this Bharat Jodo call to the nation. And back then, Congress was a thriving idealistic political movement against the British rulers and now it is an ever weakening political organization electorally defeated several times. However, it is India at stake, not just the Congress party. That is why so many regional political parties, civil society organizations, traditional anti-Congress progressive forces like socialists and communists, intellectuals and civil servants have declared their support and are proactively partici

Shocking? No Covid vaccine trials conducted on pregnant, lactating women: RTI reply

By Rosamma Thomas* A Right to Information applicant who sought details of safety trials conducted in India on pregnant and lactating women for three Covid vaccines in use in India – Covishield, Covaxin and ZyCov-D -- was shocked to learn from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) that Serum Institute, manufacturer of Covishield, and Cadila Healthcare, manufacturer of the ZyCov-D vaccine, had not sought permission for such trials. Bharat Biotech, manufacturer of Covaxin, had sought permission for trial on pregnant women and later withdrawn its application. This response , provided after the applicant was initially unsatisfied with the response and went in appeal, is from the joint drugs controller, CDSCO. It was dated September 13, 2022. One researcher closely following the vaccine rollout, however, is of the opinion that the lack of a trial on pregnant and lactating women is a blessing; potential trial participants and their unborn babies thus escaped harm. Aruna Ro

Grave error? Scholar blames ex-Gujarat babu for anti-Christian riots 'citing fake report'

By Rajiv Shah A few days back, I received a message from one of the finest former Gujarat government bureaucrats, PG Ramrakhiani, a 1964 batch IAS official, who retired in November 2000. I would often interact with him in 1997-99, even later, after I was sent to Gandhinagar as a Times of India man to cover Sachivalaya. Those were turbulent times. Shankarsinh Vaghela was the Gujarat chief minister, under attack from two sides – from the BJP, which he had left to form a separate breakaway party, Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP), one one hand, and the Congress, which was supporting him from outside, on the other. Ramrakhiani, in his message, referred to the book authored by Ghanshyam Shah and Jan Breman, both top-notch scholars who have known Gujarat in and out. Called “Gujarat, Cradle and Harbinger of Identity Politics: India’s Injurious Frame of Communalism”, I reviewed the book in January 2022. It claims that Muslims in Gujarat have been turned into “new untouchables”, thanks to the Hin

Excess to cheetah in Kuno to increase 'woes' of local people, 'disturb' wildlife balance

Bharat Dogra* The release of eight cheetahs into the Kuno National Park ( Madhya Pradesh) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, although accompanied by a media blitz, has raised several questions. The animals were flown from Namibia to Gwalior and from there they were taken to the release site in a helicopter. Official sources have stated that this is the first time a large carnivorous species has been moved across continents for establishing a new population. This first release will be followed by others under this project. However, precisely for this reason, it is important to be cautious because if such translocations have been generally avoided in the past, there may have been reasons for this and at the same time we do not have much learning experiences from the past. The Cheetah became extinct in India in 1952, although this very fast moving animal is still remembered in the folklore of many areas. Hence the first impulse is to say that trying to introduce and revive

Introducing non-native cheetahs is 'not equivalent' to restoring pride in the nation

By Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay* The Cheetahs from the African continent has finally been introduced to India by the Indian Prime Minister on his 72nd birthday. The process had started with the previous Government in 2009. However, the Supreme Court clearance was pending owing to the objection by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) plea to reintroduce cheetahs. Finally the clearance was obtained in January 2020 and thereafter Kuno National Park (KNP) was chosen for the reintroduction of first set of Southeast African Cheetahs. In the near future, depending upon the success story of the current reintroduction, more cheetahs from South Africa may also be introduced. This exercise has generated a lot of interest among various stakeholders with opinions on both sides galore. It is important to pose some questions that surround the whole exercise. Let us evaluate some of these arguments. The first set of arguments are quite detached from the issues of conservation as they most

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'Military diplomacy': US praises Bangladesh Army for leadership role in UN operations

By Kamal Uddin Mazumder* As the Indo-Pacific region represents the world’s economic and strategic center of gravity, the Indian Ocean today is becoming the centerpiece of all geo-strategic play. Cooperation in the region is crucial to implementing the international community’s global agenda, including achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Major powers like the US have enhanced and deepened their strategic engagement and leadership roles with countries in the region. The Indo-Pacific Army Management Seminar, or IPAMS, is a U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) initiated conference that is aimed at facilitating and enhancing interactions among the armies of the Indo-Pacific region. This year's 46th Indo-Pacific Armies Management Seminar (IPAMS)-2022, co-hosted by the Bangladesh Army and US Army Pacific (USARPAC), concluded in Dhaka. The objective of IPAMS is to promote peace and stability in the region through mutual understanding, dialogue, and friendship. It is the largest confer

Counterview

Search This Blog