Article #56: Corona & Lockdown

It’s been more than a year since the so-called Coronavirus or Covid-19 has affected millions of people’s lives all over the world. Being a contagious disease, it has even resulted in the lockdown of many countries in the world. Irrespective of race, religion, caste, creed, gender, financial status, it has shown its impact on almost everyone. All of sudden, the normal life has been disrupted, the future of the world has been at stake. As soon as we thought that things were slowly on track, it again came in the form of a second wave. Now, there are some predictions that we could see some more waves. During all this process, the life of a common man was badly affected.  

Well, this article is going to narrate the stories of ordinary people from India who are being massively impacted with the Corona & Lockdown. 

It was December 2019 when the first Corona Virus case was originated in Wuhan, China. Slowly, it started spreading to other countries. The cases started growing in India during the month of March and a lockdown was imposed in the country from March 25th to May 31st last year, that is 2020. 

The lockdown restricted people from stepping out of their homes. All transport services–road, air and rail–were suspended, with exceptions for transportation of essential goods, fire, police and emergency services. Educational institutions, industrial establishments and hospitality services were also suspended. Services such as food shops, banks and ATMs, petrol pumps, other essentials and their manufacturing were exempted. 

Among the people who were impacted, the migrant workers of India stand first. Indian migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic have faced multiple hardships. With factories and workplaces shut down due to the lockdown imposed in the country, millions of migrant workers had to deal with the loss of income, food shortages and uncertainty about their future. Following this, many of them and their families went hungry. Thousands of them then began walking back home, with no means of transport due to the lockdown. Although the Central and State Governments took various measures to help them by arranging transport, lot of migrant workers died due to the lockdown. The causes for these deaths have been reported as with reasons ranging from starvation, suicides, exhaustion, road and rail accidents, police brutality and denial of timely medical care. Most of them in these were those who depend on their daily wages in a way that they earn for the day and spend it for that day itself. They do not have anything to save and they cannot even afford the minimum medical care.  

Apart from migrant workers, gig workers like delivery boys, cab drivers, etc. have gone through a similar issue though it has not got much attention in the news. Even most of the Gig workers come from a poor background. The Corona & lockdown simply affected their livelihood. 

Moving from the economy, the impact of Covid-19 on education has been cruel and its repercussions will be seen in the upcoming future. As per the report of World Bank titled “Beaten or broken: Informality and Covid”, WB has warned that there will be the lifelong impact of school closures on the productivity of this generation of students. 

Children being out of school for about eight months might forget some facts as well as impact their learning capacity. 

So, what is the benefit of nearly 100% enrolment ratio at primary level education? Despite one of the greatest achievements in enrolling the students at primary level Covid-19 is stopping us to reap its benefits in the coming future. This way, even children, the tomorrow's citizens were impacted. 

With any pandemic or any situation which impact the society at large comes the problem of psychological trauma. The lockdown has proved that “man is a social being” because continuous lockdown for about four months have impacted people psychologically and the burden has been faced by women and children in the form of domestic violence. 

Do you know that in the lockdown period, multiple calls have been received on the helpline number made for the people going through domestic violence? That way, the working women at homes were impacted. 

Not just domestic violence, there were even other major issues experienced by most of the people like anxiety, depression, fear, worry and concern about the future. 

A Tea seller couldn’t know how to get on with his life when he can’t open his tea shop for his livelihood 

Restaurants and hotel owners couldn’t find an easy alternative when their businesses went in losses 

Software Engineers couldn’t come out of panic mode when their jobs were at stake 

The police couldn’t know when they could get some rest while controlling the public during the Covid lockdown 

All of sudden, the electricians, plumbers, carpenters became jobless. They couldn’t know when they could resume their works.

Nurses and Health workers couldn’t take an off or leave during the pandemic situation 

The people associated with the Movie Industry couldn’t understand how the situation is going to impact them. 

On the other hand, lies the management of private hospitals who started looting people with the name of Corona and its treatment. Consultation fees was increased, Unnecessary medical tests were being conducted, complex prescriptions were suggested, Avoidable hospitalizations were made, illegal medical bills were collected, false promises were made and even fake treatments were done. The burden and impact of all this had to be borne by the common people. Now, tell me who is not affected?  

May it can be the first wave or the bigger second wave of Corona, may it can be during the lockdown or during the process of unlocks, it is always the common man who is being affected. 

As India is recognized as land of diversity, so the impact of Covid-19 is diverse and countless. But, if we see the other side of reality, COVID-19 has impacted our society and that is for sure, but only adversely? That is the thing we need to analyze carefully. 

It has been truly said that “crisis gives birth to the changes which were pending for many years”, same has happened during the time of Covid-19. Things have been changed to meet the needs of the society what the Indian government were trying hard to implement from past many years. 

Be it online education or judiciary, Covid-19 (crisis) has allowed making this major transformation in the education and judiciary. 

But, again the benefits from these transformations will be limited because of the gap in the digital connectivity of our country. 

Needless to say that this biological war waged by China has created history and left sad memories for everyone round the globe.

At this stage, we should ask a genuine question: What kind of society we’ll see post-Covid-19? Fragmented? Unequal? We don’t know but we’ll have to stand up again and support each other. We’ll have to adopt values enshrined in our Preamble of the Constitution i.e., “Equality, Fraternity & Integrity” to make India a better place on earth for its citizens and the world. 

Give a thought.