Pandemic Management

Health disasters like the pandemics and the epidemics and natural calamities like earthquakes, floods and Tsunami are not new to the world plunging people into a whirlpool but the speed and the magnitude of the Coronavirus is unexpected. There is no panacea or the magic wand to wean away the people from the hardships and miseries No solution, policies and the systems can face the challenges successfully to mitigate the distress conditions of the masses in general and the vulnerable people in particular.

Generally, Disaster management like the pandemic coronavirus results in blame game and shifting the responsibilities between the Government and the opposition adding fuel to the fire situation rather than solving the problems. In "Measure for Measure" play, Shakespear says that any tragedy or disaster is fertile ground for politicians to take undue advantage. The need of the hour is to initiate concerted efforts and collective action keeping aside the ideological and the personality differences of the parties and the politicians along with the bureaucratic machinery should rise to the occasion and the plan of action is to be enunciated ensuring the dissemination of correct information and communication to the public giving no scope to fake news and rumours that exacerbate the situation. Community participation plays a crucial role in densely populated countries such as India in fighting the novel Coronavirus, said Dale Fisher, Chair of the W.H.O.

Anywhere and everywhere in the world, it would be a Herculean task to face the challenges of the Pandemic or any other disaster. It is always a thankless job. No success is assured. Magnanimity is required without magnifying the crisis.3 M’s i.e. Men, Material and the Money are important to meet the demands of the situation and the optimum utilisation of these resources is necessary. It all depends upon the Visionary leadership unifying all the stakeholders facilitating swift action to mitigate the hardships of the people, is essential.

The Government of India announced the lockdown abruptly causing hardships and the miseries to the migrant workers particularly Vulnerable people who depend on Daily wages and Hand to Mouth situation. The marketeers of the political parties who coined the slogans and made the documentary films of Mera Bharat Mahan and India shining should be ashamed at the stark and glaring realities of our Migrant workers who have been leading a miserable life in inhuman conditions and some of them were ready to go to their native places on foot. When thousands of the students are transported to the Uttar Pradesh and the Bihar from Kota of Rajasthan and the hundreds of people who are being stuck up in other countries are being airlifted. What crime have the migrant workers committed? The panic virus is more dangerous than the novel Coronavirus. It is better late than never. The migrant workers who want to go their places should be allowed to go. The buses and the trains should be made available at free of cost. Testing can be done after their arrival o their places. The local panchayats and the District officials would take care of them. The fact that the Novel Coronavirus has not spread much to the villages should be a relief to everyone. Once the Migrant workers are tested after their arrival to their places. If they are tested positive they can be kept in home quarantine by taking adequate steps to contain the virus. Sending them to their places is the only succour.

The Relief and the Rehabilitation measures should be initiated to the Migrant workers based on the Short Term, the Medium Term and the Long Term. Most of the Migrant workers are unskilled. They can be provided employment opportunities in and around the villages by undertaking The rural Infrastructure projects like roads, construction of the Godowns, the cold storage, community halls, school buildings repairs and construction of additional classrooms, construction of houses to the homeless by the Government under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. MGNREGA funds can be utilised in the short term by expanding the scope of the scheme for the said activities.  Rural industries mostly The Khadi, the cottage and the Agro-based particularly processing industries of Food, Vegetables, Fruits and the Dairy, The Poultry etc can be started in the villages and the Semi-Urban areas by encouraging the local educated facilitating Agri Starts UPS sanctioning them the Mundra loans from a minimum of 5 lakhs to a maximum of one crore. Local industries based on the locally available resources would accelerate the growth and the development and would create enormous employment opportunities. Skill development can be imparted to local youth and the educated depending upon the local requirement. Production of Masks, the hand gloves, bandage cloth, beds, suits and other medical equipment can be taken up in the rural areas and the towns.

While I was working as the principal of The Government Junior college at Rebbana Mandal in Adilabad district. I introduced some vocational courses of two years at the Intermediate level. Multi-Purpose Health Worker(MPHW), Medical Lab Technology (MLT) Commercial Garment & Design Making (CGDM) and Computer Science ((CS) and other courses and also nine short term courses. All these courses were running successfully as they are employment and self -employment oriented. We developed a card showing the vital health information after taking the blood samples from the college students by the Paramedical students In each card showing blood group, haemoglobin percentage, height and weight (Body Mass Index). This was done as part of the practicals. We conducted a small medical camp in a nearby village Gangapur collected blood samples from 40 villagers. We gave them the cards showing the vital information as said above.we couldn’t continue it as there was a mixed response. For the computer students, we could get a small assignment of collecting data from the shops in Mancherial and uploaded it to Hyderabad based company.        

    

Under Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu scheme, we arranged to impart skill development training programme in Kaghaznagar, Rebbana, Mancherial of The then Adilabad District and Jammikunta of Karimnagar District. Two hundred girls were imparted training in Garment stitching by Industrial sewing machines. After training these girls were given the placement in Garment units in Bangalore. They were provided with food and accommodation in addition to salaries. Within six months most of the girls came back to their places. More than 1000 students were imparted training in data entry and other computer-enabled services. Most of them were given placement in Hyderabad based Data Entry and call centres. Even these candidates were dropped out citing the various reasons like change In weather and food habits and other ridiculous reasons. I took a contract for the stitching of 10000 school uniforms from the then Apco in one year another year from Rajiv Vidya Mission. I had given this assignment to our CGDM students to the local self-help groups. This experiment was successful but there were certain aberrations. After these experiences, I continued to bring work from the cities and assign them to the skilled workers in the rural areas. In this process, I burnt my fingers due to lack of logistic support. It is a different matter but taking my experience and experiment we can impart the skill development training provide the employment opportunities in the rural areas having tie-up with the industries like Garment units, call centres, Diagnostic centres, hospitals and other organisations based in Metropolitan cities. Thus the benefits of Demographic Dividend can be reaped.

Decongest the urban areas and discourage the people coming from the rural areas and encourage the industries and the industrialists for promoting industries in rural areas by providing various incentives catering to their needs for creating employment opportunities in villages and small towns as the communication and the transportation are no longer barriers for the movement of the goods and the services. 

The available statistics of the Medical and the paramedical facilities and the personnel reveal the distressed conditions prevailing in our country’s health facilities. One doctor for 10000 population is available in our country whereas eight doctors in China and 67 doctors in Cuba, which is one of the smallest countries in the world. The paramedical posts sanctioned in 1,58,417 Sub-centres, Primary Health Centres (PHC) and the community centres are 3,16,884 Whereas 2,01,783 are working. Even these sanctioned posts are inadequate to the needs and the demands of the Health Sector as per The Indian Public Health Standards. (IPHS) The budget allocated in the present financial year 2020-21 is 67,112 crores which is insufficient.

Employment Generation can be created focusing on the rural areas for the Integrated and the Holistic development in the villages where 66% of the population live in the villages.  Funds should not be a problem looking at the scale of the Development and its results. Committees at the central level and the State level and the District level should be constituted consisting of all the representatives of the political parties, Intellectuals, prominent engineers and eminent Doctors and other Stakeholders for creating confidence among the public that they are safe in the hands of the Governments at the Centre and the State.

Poverty alleviation, Employment Generation, Accessibility to quality health facilities and the Quality Education opportunities and Reasonable Shelter would be possible if an adequate allocation of Budget from a minimum of 10% to a maximum of 15% of our GDP is made this year and continue it for three years for the Rural Development, Rural Industries, Health and Education. The Gestation period is less compared to other long term investment and expenditure. Let us rise the occasion and be magnanimous to recognise the quality of life. Let us hope our Agriculture and the rural economy enable us to withstand any eventuality and does not cause major lives and the livelihoods.