Page 31 - Issue 01

.... which proves that we haven't done anything substantial to help
them out and provide them stable employment. So, what are your
thoughts on this and how do you think India can address this issue?
Also, what does this overall reveal about Indian society and economy?

Indian society obviously has lot of layers - class, caste, regional and various other disparities.
And, as I said earlier, we should be more sensitive to these inequalities and more so during
the ongoing pandemic. Getting back, at the global level, one comes across the Great

Barrington Declaration and the John Snow Memorandum. These are two broad schools of
thought among medical scientists to address the pandemic.
The Declaration takes a position that everyone is not equally vulnerable. There are
demographic differences observed across age and gender and other factors. And hence, with
reasonable restrictions the relatively less vulnerable people should be allowed to work while
those with greater vulnerability (particularly, those with co-morbidities that have greater
risk factors) are to be kept at a safe distance. This approach is sensitive to migrant labourers

and their plight. In particular, the approach would suggest that they stay in their destination
and not return back to their native places.
As against this, the Memorandum has been in favour of stricter restrictions until a safe
therapeutic or medical intervention is available. While not being explicit about livelihood
concerns, their stricter restrictions would also pre-empt any uncalled for mobility. As an
aside, currently, vaccination is being rushed through. Even if one allays the scientific

concerns on account of emergency approval (that is, without going through some checks and
balances that is done under normal circumstances), there can be other major challenges
regarding its availability, access, supply chain logistics, public health infrastructure, and the
reduced focus on other medical conditions. This position has larger economic costs.
On mobility, I would also like to refer to Nicholas Christakis who is a physician turned
network sociologist. He wrote a book Apollo’s Arrow where he studied pandemics from 1917-
18 onwards and provides insights for the current pandemic. He and his colleagues have also

recently tracked the mobile phones that passed through Wuhan in January 2020, before
lockdown was enforced there, and observed that there is a positive association between the
distribution of these mobile phones across China with the distribution of incidences of
infection from Covid in these regions. In short, mobility amplified through network has an
important role in the spread of the infection. Given this, restriction on mobility will be

helpful. But, this requires other enabling provisions so that people are provided with food,
shelter, health care, and are also compensated for their livelihood.
Q6. You talked about the decentralised approach. Who do you think
would take the responsibility in rural area or even in a municipality?
What would be the policy suggestion according to you for this
decentralised approach?

A benefit of doubt could have been given in 2020 but if someone says that they have still not

developed these things in 2021, one would be surprised. Odisha, which has some strengths in
disaster management were the first state to declare lockdown in March 2020 when there were
fewer cases. Further, Government of Odisha, much before the first peak,

28