Today as India enters the Eighth week of lockdown, an old and often quoted adage ‘Life is not about surviving but Living’ comes to mind. There are two basic attitudes to life, some say “I want to Live” while others say “I don’t want to die”. Any microcosm of society i.e. nations, cities, even municipalities will have an aggregate of both views, the balance of survival versus growth may perhaps be as old as humanity itself. However, the fact that we have come a long way from hanging on trees and consider ourselves better than the rest of the animal kingdom has to be attributed to success of the view that said, Damn be the risks, I/we want to live, flourish and expand our horizons.
There will always be those who don’t want to die, crave safety and protection against all forms of real and imagined harm. Multiple comparisons are drawn between Spanish flu of 1918 and the Corona Virus Pandemic of 2020. The Spanish Flu was no doubt horrific and reading descriptions of the time makes me glad that I didn’t live through those times. But the same news articles also make me reflect upon the fact that people, even in those tough times, did not stop living. They took whatever precautions were necessary, or the ones they could afford, but no businesses were shut down. No cities were forced in lockdowns. Things were tough, the Spanish flu death rate is widely estimated at around 60 percent which is far higher than that of Covid-19. Yet, people focused on moving forward, on achievements. That is what defined their lives, not the tragedy.
This culture of moving forward, of not sitting at home with the slightest excuse drove human progress. The time from Spanish Flu till now was of unprecedented Human Progress. Our lives undoubtedly became better, so did our health care systems and more importantly our access to healthcare. While only a handful of individuals had access to primary healthcare in 1918, the figure now stands at 94 percent according to a WHO report released in January 2019. Malnutrition has declined, Trade has become more open and, despite what many say, the last century has been a game changer for the poorest nations. It is plain to see that the pandemic of 1918, though devastating, had no lasting effect on Human progress.
Today, we face a pandemic which is similar in scope, however, less dramatic in consequences. Hundreds of Thousands are dead and millions affected. The figure will sadly rise as the time progresses. But in all this focus on avoiding deaths, are we not starting a new pandemic. By classifying Business as essential and non-essential are we not avoiding the question – ‘Essential for Whom?” Are the factories and construction projects that are shut not essential for people working in them and their families. There are billions of people around the world that need to earn daily to survive. Covid-19 is not leaving us in a hurry. How long can the governments support the unsaid billions, a recent statement by WHO confirms that this virus will be a part of our lives for atleast 2-3 years.
The hunger and disease that lack of access to work and poverty arising from it, will create for large swathes of our population will be far worse than our estimated death count for Coronavirus. This devil is out of the bottle, now we can either hide in the confines of our walls or come out and fight it. And like every other war, the most courageous side will win. Lockdowns may be the most politically correct thing to do, but is it the most moral or righteous thing to do. Do we all not desire to give our children a better world than the one we inherited. With entire world entering recession, and industries being forced to shut, we will have far fewer resources to spend on building up infrastructure on healthcare and on building facilities that the most vulnerable require.
This craving for safety, the need to avoid even a little discomfort in our lives, is going to amplify it manifold. We are already seeing the origins of a Great Depression, the likes of which will make the earlier one seem like a blip. With little or no money to spend on welfare and social programs eroded, the poor will get impacted first. We are already seeing large queues for food collection, what happens when they become even larger, say to a magnitude of 100 or even 1000. Will we then, say enough, or will we wait for it to reach our cozy middle class homes and erode our standards of living, the shells we have built around ourselves.
The governments must allow industries to function, force them to do so even. The global trade must resume and the distinction between essential and non-essential must be removed. The society must, of course, make some basic precautions mandatory; enforce them with all its might and then punish the violators. Industrialist and traders who are providing us with our supplies should be rewarded and not vilified. The toll of people dying due to emotional and financial stress due to the lockdown will be far higher than the disease itself and its consequences will far outlast this generation.
Social distancing as a recommendation is a wonderful thing. Aside from good advice to avoid spreading disease, it’s just being respectful, aware of your surroundings, and confident in the space you physically occupy in this world. People would do well – I think – to practice it in public. Social distancing as a law is tyranny, which we as citizens of the world and custodians of the future generation must protest.
