Meeting the challenge of COVID-19: Scenario in India no better than neighbouring countries

In the first address to the nation on COVID-19 on 19 March 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the people to bang thaalis, ghantisand sound shankhs as a mark of respect and gratitude for the health workers, including doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, safai sevaksand others who have been doing hard work to prevent corona infection. The people of India listened to the PM’s appeal and did as desired by him.

Then again on 5 April people lit diyas and candles at his appeal. This was in response to the call from the Prime Minister of the country. Despite the fact that he did not announce any benefits to the health workers or the common people, no eyebrows were raised. No one questioned him for not declaring any benefits to the healthcare workers or food/ration to the common people.

But on 14 April people expected some concrete steps. Very cleverly he did not ask the people to light candles or to bang thaalis, he came out with seven suggestions which the people must follow. But nowhere during his 25-minute-long speech did he utter a single word about the problems being faced by the healthcare workers — the doctors, the nursing staff, the safai karamchari, the paramedical staff and other allied people. He did not utter a single word over the attacks on the doctors, and ASHA workers at several places including by the police.

It is in the knowledge of everyone that lakhs of people have been displaced/stranded and are trying to get back home to their families. Since the lock down was announced without any preparations these people did not have time to go home. They were facing hunger at the place they are living, job loss and even many of them have been thrown out of their rented places. It was expected from the PM to announce a few steps for them.

As per the Food Corporation of India (FCI) website, there is 309.76 lakh metric tonnes of rice and 275.21 lakh metric tonnes of wheat in March 2020 in state food stocks. With the new crop coming, the already stored wheat/rice could have been utilized to feed the hungry who are running around in search of food. Instead of reassuring them the PM asked the citizens to take care of them. This is escaping from the responsibility of the state to feed citizens of the country.

On 14 April, the Prime Minister patted himself on the back and said that world has praised India for its efforts which led to containment of corona in India. He was happy that Indian scenario is better than the Europe or the USA. This is true. But it has to be seen from other counts also.

The reasons for this low incident in our country could be many: different climatic conditions, inherent immunity in our population, cross immunity as a result of more exposure to the viruses and bacteria. Other important reason for low number of cases is that the number of tests done in our country is very less in comparison to Europe or America, as a result of which our data may not reveal the exact picture.

Therefore it is important to compare our data with people from similar ethnic groups, similar economic conditions and the climatic conditions. India with a population of over 138 crore has reported 11555 cases on 15 April. The total number of tests conducted in our country is 176 per 10 lakhs people.

With a population of about 2.9 crores Nepal has done 216 tests per 10 lakh and reported total cases of 16 as on 15 April. Likewise Pakistan with a population of 22 crores has reported 5988 cases and conducted 332 per 10 lakh. Sri Lanka with a population of 2.1 crores has reported 233 cases and conducted 222 per 10 lakh and Bangladesh with a population of 16.4 crores has reported 1231 and conducted 90 cases per 10 lakh.

From this data it is clear that incidence of COVID-19 cases in all the South Asian countries is similar. India is no better than its other South Asian neighbours. Some of the South Asian countries have done much more tests than us. Therefore by eulogizing himself, the Prime Minister is ignoring the real issues and the ground reality.

For the governments of all the South Asian countries it is important to learn a lesson and increase mutual cooperation not only to fight back the COVID-19 crises, but for health, education and development in the coming times as well. It is also time for the researchers to find reasons for low incident of Corona cases in South Asian countries.