It’s not wrong to criticise government, its policies and the politicians ruling over the nation if and when they are on the wrong side of governance. In a democratic system, criticism makes the state run efficiently. Also, criticism for the sake of criticism is of no use, for giving alternatives is necessary for the smooth functioning of the state. Different parties may come to power and go, but the policies, acts, and rules continue to help or affect the citizens.
As most parts of the world were under lockdown due to pandemic, such situations are not new in human history. Human generations faced it, came out of it and developed the nations in the better way. Post lockdown, states and their stakeholders, be they farming, textile, technology, medical or education sectors, are in crisis. In view of the fact that the crisis is going to transpire, and its impact will be mostly on poor and middle-class families, governments would have a strategy to manage and private stakeholders should contribute their parts.
Before discussing crisis management solutions, let’s first discuss “Crisis”.
Crisis is a hardship or severe danger or hindering or pitiful state or dominant disorder.
How Crisis occurs/expands? It occurs and expands because of carelessness of the state and its stakeholders about the early warnings, not utilising resources in handling the crisis in early stages and not setting the priorities before it expands and harms at the larger level.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
It’s an ability to protect individuals or an organisation or a state from the troublesome time. To handle the crisis, one must be free from whims and desires which humankind usually suffers from. Also, one should guarantee the credibility, impartiality and transparency during handling a crisis.
Handling Crisis: If individuals or communities or states fail to handle the crisis in a proper way, this failure may result in catastrophes and calamities. With respect to COVID-19, an unexpected crisis ensued as we hoped we would be able to escape it with best of results and made no better solutions for handling the crisis. All this proved to be slow, incomplete and temporary, instantaneous measures like painkillers. And the fear is looming large that the pandemic might occur again, perhaps in a manner which would be severer than it was before.
Solutions: Reforms in Crisis with Limited tools: Prophet Yusuf introduced a reformist policy based on a long-term plan to confront a crisis in Egypt. The planned programme was balance between four economic operations: Production, Consumption, Saving and then Re-invest (part of the saving). He defined the objectives of each economic process; along with determined policies, means, procedures and plan schedule (for execution), without neglecting the ethical angle.
The Philosophy behind Prophet Yusuf’s solution to then President of Egypt was, “You will cultivate land for seven consecutive years as usual. During this period thrash out of the harvest you reap only that much grain that might suffice for your food and leave the rest in the ears. Then, after this, there shall come upon you seven hard years. Then you will eat up all that corn you might have kept for that period except that you will have reserved in the store.” (Al-Qur’an – 12:47-48)
Share resources rather than being protectionist: A simple narration from the life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ helps us understand crisis management in a lucid way. The example of a person abiding by God’s commandments and restrictions in comparison to those who violate them is like the example of those persons who drew lots for their seats in boat. Some of them got seats in the upper part and the others in the lower. When the latter needed water, they had to go up to bring water (and that troubled the others), so they said, “Let us make a hole in our share of the ship (and get water) saving those who are above us from troubling them. So, if the people in the upper part left the others do what they had suggested, all the people of the ship would be destroyed, but if they prevented them, both parties would be safe.” Helping neighbours, daily wage earners, private employees, etc. to be supported in this hour of crisis due to lockdown is the real solution.
Interest Free Banking (IFB): What we are witnessing is that many businesses have been closed, industries not in a position to pay interest to banks, central government is not in a position to give due share of GST as promised to States and entire financial system is on ventilator due to corona as its immunity is low amid pandemic. Even though the war room was set up on 19th March 2020, as a part of a business contingency plan (BCP). The BCP is the first of its kind implemented by any central bank in the world because even during World War II we did not have any such facility, an RBI official reportedly said. Why aren’t the experts of war room and RBI officials thinking of the idea of Interest-Free Banking suggested by former Governor of RBI Raghuram Rajan, in this hour of crisis when GDP decline is 23.9% in its first quarter of 2020-21 and experts are expecting it would affect more in future. According to an IMF report, Islamic finance assets grew at a double digit growth rate in the past decade from about $200 billion in 2003 to $1.8 trillion at the end of 2013. And, the growth is not only confined within the Muslim countries. China, Germany, the UK and the US are some of the non-Muslim countries with Islamic banking system in place.
Adopt a Village: If every MLA/MLC, MP, industrialist/ businessman, celebrity and NGO adopts a village for at least three years, minimum 15,000 villages/ localities across the nation can be developed and it can be a great example to rest of the world. This thought is not just for doing social service but also to improve the financial conditions of those villagers, establishing small-scale industries, creating employment opportunities, overall to contribute to the country’s GDP.
Consider a village or locality of 500 families, their basic requirements can be managed within their reach. These families will be their consumers, once you have the customer base, the sale of product is obvious. It also creates employment for local youths, establish a self-help group system and plan for a start-up. Either the manufacturing of soap, chilly power, atta packets, bakery items, etc. can be done with low investment following all legalities. Large numbers of youths who are educated yet unemployed should join hands and create awareness in their localities, can be an entrepreneur today and an industrialist in future. It reduces the cost of agents, dealers in between, transportation, marketing, etc. Youth are the future of the nation but today they are losing hope. The government must come forward to play its role to develop the nation and contribute to the economy.
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