India on the world-map
Year 2018 — India made a significant mark on the world map with the Statue of Unity. Constructed in the midst of the river Narmada, the statue stands 182m tall and has an exterior coat of 1850 tonne of bronze. Official reports state, 135 metric tonne of iron was received from 1.69 lakh villages across India. The ‘Loha campaign’ intended to connect the farmers with the person who played a prominent role in upliftment of the farming community. Villagers were enthralled at the sight of bar coded boxes arriving to collect their donations — farmers were asked to contribute their used farming equipment for the project. 109 tonnes of these were reprocessed and used in the foundation of the statue. In effect, the people felt connected to a national sentiment and a part of a larger cause. The project, worth a staggering INR. 2,989Cr, stands at an ecologically sensitive area in the Narmada riverbed and flouts several environmental regulations as per environmentalists and activists. The tribals of the area had been protesting against the project for years and allege that it took away their land and livelihood without adequate compensation.
Year 2019 — The final updated version of National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam was released in August. It left out 1.9 million applicants. Those left out spent around INR. 7,836Cr for NRC hearings and may have been so financially drained that they will not be able to challenge their exclusion in Foreigner’s Tribunal. Further, NRC will now be extended to cover the entire country. On strictly monetary terms, this will entail an estimated expenditure of INR. 50,000Cr against administration expenses, INR. 2–3 lakh crore to build and maintain detention camps in addition to indirect expenses as per estimates of analysts.
Year 2020 — The year began with the news of a new contagious virus detected in the Wuhan city of China. Since then, the world has been left shocked by a pandemic. We are still grappling to track the trail and assign a character to this new virus. India was already struggling with its economic downturn since a few years. While we were categorizing the nature of the downturn and analyzing the effect of the current financial budget, the first case arrived in Kerala as an imported case from Wuhan on January 31st. Till March 15th, we witnessed 10 to 15 new cases per day. By March 22nd, the number of new cases per day rose to 80 to 100. Restrictions were imposed across the country on mass gatherings and general public movement. A complete lockdown of transportation services ensued along with organizations going for online operations wherever feasible. Action plans were chalked out at household level by individuals to optimize use of essentials while the elected few were expected to do the same at the state and country level. Perplexing data were highlighted about the Indian healthcare system.
The symptoms of the infection resembles those of common cold, which made detection by symptoms even more difficult. Queue at the few hospitals equipped with testing facilities made the waits long. The ones who tested positive bore the risk of spreading the infection among the rest in the waiting areas. Masks and sanitizers, recommended for regular use while outside, soon got exhausted from stores and there was no assurance of replenishment in near future. There were few heartening instances of university students rising up to the occasion and manufacture sanitizers at their own premises for public distribution.
A contagion of this measure was unseen by generations in a long time since the Spanish flu of 1918. People in the younger age bracket often show symptoms late or are completely asymptomatic in a few cases. The danger the latter pose to the society is huge. It is a daunting task for the Government to trace and quarantine all people who come in direct contact with such a person. The people who come in contact with a ‘direct-contact’ are also at similar risk and if infected, trigger the start of stage 3 of the pandemic as in the illustration below:
As per official statistics till March 20th, India is still in stage 2 as there is still no reported case of community transmission. However, on March 25th, a 66 year-old with no travel history to the affected areas of the world tested positive. The patient attended a family wedding a week before where there were 300 invitees. “There were none among the guest who had traveled to the affected parts of the world or anyone who had returned from another state”, his son claimed. All among the guest-list and other traced direct-contacts of the patient were quarantined. A week before this case surfaced, there was a report of 11 corona suspects fleeing from a Navi Mumbai hospital. These incidents point towards the possibility of a yet undetected community spread which may surface in the near future.
Presently, doctors and healthcare workers have been vocal about the pressing demand-supply gap of testing kits for COVID-19. Government healthcare infrastructure in India has long been incapable to match up to the regular influx of patients. As of March 15th, only 51 testing centres were identified and equipped for the entire population of 1.37 billion. As per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), only those with COVID-19 symptoms are being tested presently as the spread of the disease is limited, however, it accepted the fact that India does not have enough testing kits to scale up diagnosis if COVID-19 permeates exponentially. From March 13th to March 27th, positive cases have increased from 90 to over 870. It is evident that the present state of healthcare system will not be able to shield the country in case the situation worsens. With the economy in a difficult shape and a population only second to China, the strategy of India to combat this crisis has to be more precautionary. Collaborative efforts of the health ministry and the media have so far done a great job in spreading awareness and reach out to the people who need support. The ICMR, which is spearheading the battle against the coronavirus has been consistent in its efforts to scale up the sourcing of the antibody kits and the RNA extraction kits which are being used for diagnosis and testing in this country.
Taking these instances from the successive years as a learning, we should be more prudent in investing our money. The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs puts it in clear terms for us:
This principle is intrinsically followed in our personal lives. If we think of the nation as a family, the same principle should be applicable, with the Government as the family-head. As per 2011 census 21.9% of the Indian population is Below Poverty Level (BPL). In essence, they have limited access to basic resources to ensure their physiological and safety needs. In contrast to the rest of the world, private sector caters to maximum of the healthcare needs of India. Only one-fifth of the healthcare expenses are financed publicly. To propel India among the strongest of the economies, we must empower our citizens first. Investment in healthcare, education, sanitation, R&D and transportation is what this country requires to strengthen the base of the pyramid. In the last two years, funds were allotted in projects that addressed only the tip of the iceberg. To remove the roadblock to India’s success story, we should attack the problem at its base. As we collaborate with countries across the world to frame a plan of action to fight the pandemic, we might as well take this opportunity to strengthen ourselves where we are still most vulnerable — the healthcare system.
