At the time of writing, global cases had topped one million with 50,000 deaths due to the Coronavirus pandemic. While the US, Spain and Italy are reporting 245000, 117000, 115000 cases respectively, India has just crossed the 2500 mark in terms of reported cases and over 50 deaths. However, it should be noted that the tests per million of the population carried out by India is significantly lower than other countries presently ravaged by the pandemic. The BBC, quoting an Imperial College report, talked of the possibility of 40 million deaths, this year alone if appropriate precautions are not taken.
With headlines screaming half of humanity under lockdown, the debates dominating the media are mostly about healthcare inadequacies and the state of the economy. Political scientist and CSDS Associate Professor Hilal Ahmed, while talking to the Quint, pointed out the differences in the discourse about the COVID-19 pandemic between Europe (the West) and India – “Regarding public perception about the pandemic, the West views it as a disease and a humanitarian crisis that is global and must be approached with that viewpoint. Any country that is looking at it from a nationalist perspective is severely criticised. In contrast, India is viewing it as a national calamity and ignoring the associated complications if viewed from a humanitarian perspective.
“While debating about who is responsible for the pandemic, the West is pointing out the ill effects of globalisation and the inadequacies of adopting modernism. India is still not ready to rise above a narrow parochial outlook and is fixated with its favourite pursuit of minority bashing. We are looking for scapegoats to shift the blame for its origin and spread by targeting a specific religious community. We are thus avoiding the role of the state and its glaring deficiencies while dealing with the pandemic.
“About the concerns for the future, Europe is discussing the state of healthcare, the growing income inequality and the appropriateness of politics in the background of Coronavirus. India is not ready to engage in a serious debate about our future. Our discourse is only around what a particular political party does.”
There are a few op-ed articles in the national dailies and alternative digital and social media but serious debate by the electronic and mainstream media involving policymakers and senior government leadership is conspicuous by its absence. Probing the inefficacies of the government initiatives to confront the COVID-19 challenge and describing the short-term solutions will be incomplete without proposing a new policy-architecture and long-term approach for the state to prepare for such humongous eventualities.
The missing dots
Some of the glaring gaps that have come to the forefront due to the pandemic are the lack of an agency that oversees such international calamities. The government was found very inadequate to the task, given its record of accomplishment in governance and managing affairs such as the economy and foreign relations, it was not unexpected. The near abandonment of federal principles during the handling of the nationwide lockdown had the states seething with anger at the utter mismanagement of the transport of millions of migrant-labours and the requisite monetary support to the states for meeting their financial requirements.
In a country of 1.3 billion people, the allocation of 1.3% of GDP for public healthcare is both a farce and a tragedy. However, this has led to some extremely deplorable scenario where the doctors, nurses and other medical staff are running short of proper PPE, facemasks and other facilities even before we have reached Stage 3 of the pandemic. The shortage in ventilators, beds and overall healthcare infrastructure is a complete topic mandating a detailed study. Even as the media is obsessed with how many lakh-crores were wiped out at the stock market and preoccupied with the rupee-dollar exchange rates, the economic impact in the aftermath of the COVID-19 on the poor and marginalised is hardly being discussed. The fate of our farmers and those in the informal economy might be left to fend for them in the nonexistence of any concrete economic plan.
The other major fissures in the present style of governance are lack of transparency in the top decision-making, evasion of accountability, which is the logical outcome of this opacity, intolerance for any dissent or different viewpoint in policy and singular disregard towards developing a consensus and consultative approach in matters that pertain to the nation’s essential priorities. The natural result of such methodology of work is the tilt towards theatrics, rhetoric, tokenism and covert superstition when it comes to crafting policies and programmes for tackling the Coronavirus pandemic.
The new ‘human-centric’ architecture
Human Development Index (HDI) monitored by the United Nations Development Programme is a good starting point for developing a human-centric architecture for policy-making. The UN initiative says – “The HDI was created to emphasise that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone.”
India is currently placed at 129th position out of a total of 189 countries. The HDI measures the health dimension by life expectancy at birth; the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita.
Similar modelling should be designed with various criteria and indices that put human needs and dignity at the heart of policymaking. For example, the principle of “work from home” was forcibly adopted by many companies and businesses during the lockdown. This should be continued even after the lockdown wherever possible. The cascading impact of this policy on the environment, transport necessities and social life and parenting can be revolutionary and requires a boost from the government at the level of policy formulation. We need to move beyond the semantics and optics of relief-packages and subsidies as if those elected for public service are doing a favour to the people.
Education and healthcare should be considered a fundamental right of every citizen. The fiscal and economic policies should revolve around this principle. Marginal increments in budgetary allocation will not fix the problem. The COVID-19 pandemic should be used as a “reset” button and a complete overhaul of policy-architecture must be undertaken by keeping the people at the heart of all plans, schemes, strategies and blueprints.
Confronting the moral and health hazards
It is a well-established fact that the Coronavirus originated in China and it was transferred from bats to humans. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) – “A large proportion of the initial cases in late December 2019 and early January 2020 had a direct link to the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in Wuhan City, where seafood, wild, and farmed animal species were sold. Many of the initial patients were stall owners, market employees, or regular visitors to this market.”
Islam has accorded great importance towards health and hygiene when it comes to food and dietary preferences. The Holy Quran explicitly indicates the specific species of animals and living creatures that are fit for consumption. There is a whole domain of animals that are ‘halal’ (permissible), ‘haram’ (prohibited), and that includes not just their categorisation but also how they should be slaughtered and processed for ingestion. Rejection of the basic doctrine that God is the Creator of the Universe and He alone deserves our unconditional worship and submission, which includes following His laws and prohibitions, has caused a gigantic catastrophe for humanity. Today there is a craze for eating “healthy” food. However, the first criterion for healthy food should be “halal” and “tayyab” (pure of moral and biological impurities), else the consequences are bound to be pretty dire!