COVID-19 had exposed the failures of the Central Government and many State Government’s in their healthcare spending, health infrastructure & preparedness to tackle a serious pandemic. Overall, India’s public health expenditure (sum of central and state spending) has remained between 1.2% to 1.6% of GDP between 2008-09 and 2019-20 (Source: Economic Survey, Ministry of Finance). This expenditure is relatively low as compared to other countries such as China (3.2%), USA (8.5%), and Germany (9.4%).
Personally, COVID-19 gave me a chance to help distribute free rations through an NGO / IRD team for 3 months. It also brought me in close contact to the issues of affected people, the realities on the ground and also closer to other NGOs & Citizen Help Groups, helping fight hunger and helplessness caused by the subsequent long lock-downs. We exchanged ideas and our findings with each other through Zoom/Google Meet conferences. There were many a message these exchanges brought out & I thought of penning down some notable comments, eye-openers & my thoughts, that brings out the reality of what was happening in the last 3 months amidst the lock down…here are comments/thoughts which expresses the last 3 months of the lock down…
- Comment of a Doctor handling a COVID-19 emergency ward, when faced with a dilemma of having one ventilator & three serious patients to handle at a time – “I feel guilty. Why should I be playing God?” (dilemma of choosing which patient to be put on it?)
- “Stay at home”…fine, but how to I get there?…a UP migrant & restaurant worker (rendered homeless)
- “Government schemes “mostly” target the poor, the rich does not need any help, so who takes care of the middle class? they were left to fend for themselves and have slipped to poor class due to job losses, no income, rising food & medical bills, etc, and yet did not ask for help to maintain their sense of dignity” says people from middle class
- No Doubt…Affected were those who were Covid +ve and their families (numbers were there in the papers/media to see) but the Most-Affected were those who didn’t have Covid, who were locked-down as well (including the working class, the daily wagers, the migrants, the ones who didn’t get salaries or lost their jobs, financially distressed common citizens, etc)
- Rationshops, Kiranas and the Governement became hoarders of food, whereas the givers were the poor, the empathizing sections of the middle class & even those who received free rations (shared with their needy neighbours)
- Nursing Homes, Private Hospitals and Essential Drug Black marketers were the looters who profited at the cost of the common man, whereas the middle & lower middle class donated to help settle their bills
- Real God-sent Saviors were the self-sustaining NGOs / Citizen Help Groups / Charity organizations & Empathizing Citizens while the Man-made Failures were the Central Govt and State Administrations
- The Executive survived while the Common Man was Executed
These “Other” effects of Corona left a message…The virus was all-inclusive in its targeting people… can our Government’s learn something from it?