Though the year 2020 has just completed quarter portion of its journey, it has indeed been proved annus horribilis (the horrible year) particularly for India as it started showing its appalling colour with the eruption of gruesome sectarian riots in Delhi followed by the prevailing spread of the deadly coronavirus that has pounced upon almost the whole planet we live in, including India. Despite fighting against this virus with the weapons of caution, treatment and prevention, all the powerful brains and brawns have been proved impotent as the developed countries like the USA, the UK, Italy, Russia, etc. are still scrambling for a safe zone. Of course, China which was the emanating point of the virus has shown some signs of returning life to its lost track; otherwise situation is still worrisome. In India, following the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation to observe Sunday (March 22, 2020) as public curfew followed by the whole nation lockdown till March 31, 2020 and then for 21 days that to last till April 14, 2020, there have been seen many effects and side-effects in the country.
Effects
We are taking effects in a positive sense of improvement in the way of taking preventive measures. Lockdown, which is just like the complete clamping of curfew, is proved a very good preventive measure as most of the wise and educated people have minimised their outing and many of them have totally detained themselves in their homes after stocking a certain amount of ration for their survival. But some brats, vagabonds and such youth who cannot dispense with mingling up with friends could not mend their ways and were beaten by police when they frequented to come out on roads without any cogent reason. The strict step taken by administration and police restrained a large number of people to stay home. All these resulted appreciably in such way as:
Due to staying home, people could not mingle up each other and could not make gathering. It helped in slowing down the speed with which Covid-19 was spreading across the country.
Due to curfew like situation, no motor vehicles are seen on the roads and not even in the narrow lanes of the localities that have restrained hugely the increasing amount of pollution. Now, we are breathing fresh air like that of the verdant village area.
The professionals can work from home are performing similarly, rather better than doing at office while working from home and their companies are benefiting in the same ratio. The money and energy lost on commuting to office and returning to home have been saved, while on the other hand, their companies are benefiting in the sense that they need not pay electricity bill, water bill, phone bill, complimentary tea (if offered) maintenance charge of machines used and so on.
After a long, the people have got chance to stay home with their families and spend quality time with them, which is a rare happening at least in metro cities.
Students have got sufficient time to devote to their studies and online learning.
Side-effects
If the side-effects are brought in view, these are also huge and deplorable:
Police are given full power to control the public by forcing them not to come on road with the exception of such cases if someone is moving for medicine, edibles like milk, ration, vegetables, etc. But almost 25% of police are such who start showering lathis even on such people of genuine causes without paying heed to their dire requirement for which they are out on the road. Even senior citizens and handicapped have not been spared from their cruelties. Though Delhi C.M. Arvind Kejriwal has requested the police to let such people go, yet there are found many cases where police are found beating and thrashing the citizens mercilessly and throwing away the vegetables of vegetable vendors which is reported from other states of India. Of course, police personnel are doing a great job, but they should not turn gruff upon innocent citizens who are forced to go out in dire need of their necessities of life.
Earning of many of dehari mazdoor (daily wage earners) has stopped. Their families are on the verge of starvation. The langars run by the government and philanthropic citizens have fallen short in the ratio of the number of such jobless people.
The plight of labour class people is immensely deplorable. The proprietors and honours of the factories, workshops, showrooms, and shops have ousted their regular labourers and other staff from their workplaces and resultantly, they have no shelter to stay and no food to eat. Rayn Baseras and langars arranged by the Delhi state government and other philanthropists are not sufficient to meet the need of such a large number of hapless labourers from UP, Bihar, Bengal, Rajasthan and other states.
Finding no hope of food and shelter, such labourers have started plying to their native villages which are far away from Delhi and Mumbai. But on the way they are falling in the trap of the police who beat them very badly and punish them physically on the spot asking them not to come on the road. Instead of finding out any alternative solution, the government is unable to solve their problem. Of course, many of our compatriots have shown their generosity in helping such poor in the time of such a big crisis. My salute to such philanthropists of India.
As claimed by government that the ration shops and other shops of necessities would remain open, some of them do remain so. But the necessities of life are falling short very rapidly since the supplies are rarely coming from the wholesale market. If such situation continues, the days are ahead when nothing will be found in these shops.
Overall, it’s an ordeal and the time of litmus test for all us. We need to fight the situation with our unbeatable courage and calibre while maintaining perseverance, patience and application of our intellect. It is to contemplate that disasters come and go, but leave lessons for us to learn from.