By Wasia Mashoor
By now about 210 countries and nearly 2 million people are affected by the ongoing pandemic COVID-19 as per the data made available by the respective governments. But the real figures are that whole mankind is under the threat of this pandemic and among those mankind there are majority who are not posed with threat but the pandemic has engulfed them and involved them in one way or the other.
These are the ones, the majority who are not infected by the COVID-19 but they are trampled in a bid to evade off COVID-19. They are majority whose sacrifice is sought to save the rest of mankind.
They are not the one group but people held under different circumstances in every country. Fighting against the pandemic, saving human race and saving economy are the priority of every nation but what is it’s cost? Let me start with the country I reside in, India, where there are people who are setting example by their outstanding efforts during this pandemic but there are others in the play who are setting pits for people by treating them like pests. While some states see the distinguished work of their CMs and some are roped in hope only.
The first instance in this approach was when a group of laborers who were stuck in Delhi and were trying to reach there home town in Barely were sprayed with hypocrite as a disinfectant on them. Videos of the incident were viral on social media, authorities remain silent and people ignorant. We were degraded so much in our bid to save selfishly ourselves that we treated others as PESTS. Does a pandemic demand this?
It is a worldwide strategy to maintain social distancing in order to avoid contact which in turn can spread the virus. For this purpose maximum countries resorted to the lockdown measures. Definitely it is much needed but with some modus operandi. A middle class person if stuck at somewhere to some extent will try to manage few bucks to stay and be at that place but this does not apply to the labour or lower middle class of our society, which is the major portion of our society, who earn for the day to have a single meal in the evening, who have left their hometowns not for luxury but in misery. A system should have been developed to ease these people. I may cite few examples here out of millions of similar people who are in the middle of nowhere.
As per reports those who were asked to stay at camps were not given rations without documents. Wasn’t being human enough evidence for getting ration. Another case where all workers were kept under lock in the construction sites without wages, giving only some meals. For all these cases I have a question, where is the social distancing in these cases. If sending them to their respective places will hamper social-distancing guidelines, what about their current situation? Well I gather it’s not for their safety but it’s their sacrifice for the safety of the privileged ones. It’s to safeguard the portion of our society because if it would have been for them then they would have been priority not inferiority.
Again for those daily wagers who don’t have stocks for even next day, when they try to look for some ration to feed their family our few so called guardians (police) thrash them for not adhering to the lockdown but do they even realise adhering to lockdown means starving their families to death. If people from middle class and above can go out to get groceries, don’t they have right to feed their family. The only difference is that they can’t purchase, they look for some government or NGO help. Can I ask these few guardians why did they forget to thrash those ruling party supporters who instead of solidarity candle lights performed a pre-Diwali bash with firecrackers. Again they are people and those who are thrashed for survival are pests.
I don’t say that nothing is being done but what is being done let such people be a part of it. I have read the stories of police helping people in need in every possible way but there are few who choose to be opposite.
These are the majority who are treated as pests but apart from that there are few more. Our media channels are communalising the Coronavirus by referring it to any particular community. Mistake done by few cannot give them a right to treat rest as pests.
Our Front line warriors are our worthy doctors who do not even provided the Personal Protection Equipment are also an example of those being sacrificed to save the rest, treating them like pests. Giving them moral boast, appreciation with an applauses is fine but instead they are in need of something more important than this i.e. PPE kits. Even some individuals are so selfish that they target even doctors who are their saviours.
It’s not only government or police that is to be blamed but at an individual level also we are so engrossed in ourselves only that we fail to understand the plight of such people. And you will find news stories flooded with examples of individuals who have deliberately covered up their travel history, ignorantly wandering with virus and arrogantly screwing front line workers whether doctors or people from administration.
The Prime Minister was the only one among the participants of G-20 online meeting who said to deal with this pandemic with humanity as it’s base. But do we really find it in this country?