What Does The Recent Coronavirus Crisis Highlight About The State Of The Public Health And Education

By Juhi Gautam

Thousands of dead bodies lying across the streets, in search of places where they can be buried peacefully. Women, men and children mourning the death of their loved ones and agonizing in pain. Labourers marching towards their homes in order to be able to fill their bellies devoid of any food. Yes, I am talking about the massive destruction caused by the coronavirus pandemic across the globe.

I do not intend to brush-off the sudden panic caused by the emergence of covid in India, but should we let it advocate for our unpreparedness and the loopholes in our health and education sectors that came to light as a consequence to the pandemic? I firmly condemn this idea.

Let’s recall the chronology of events. Yes, I agree we began everything from scratch, setting up a large number of beds for patients, setting up various quarantine centres and what not. But did we really need to be struck by a pandemic like this in order to be able to realise the necessity of something as simple as a bed in the hospital? Well, I think we need to put some things in our perspective. In the early days of the pandemic, education was not a problem because it was expected that the pandemic would end soon and everything would run the way as it did before. Treating patients and catering to their needs of bed was the urgency of the moment, and it was completely right back then. But at that very moment, the pandemic took a toll on us, we

began to realise that if nothing is done, the pandemic will bring India’s health and education sector on its knees and we will be taken back in time. It was then, the idea of online education was introduced. That was the most feasible option, for whom? For the children privileged enough to have access to internet. What about those who didn’t? Did they not deserve access to something as basic as education? We are still working on answers to that. An Indian newspaper reported and I quote,

“Aishwarya, a second-year student of B.Sc. (Hons) Lady Shri Ram College for Women, committed suicide on November 2. In a purported suicide note she had left, she wrote “Because of me, my family is facing many financial problems. My education is a burden. If I can’t study, I can’t live.”

One of the issues Aishwarya faced was the non-availability of laptop, her family couldn’t afford it and she found it difficult to be able to keep up with online learning. This is just one example that highlights the plight of students during the pandemic.

Efforts are being taken by colleges to make sure the availability of study material to students who cannot keep up with the online mode of teaching, but can it compensate for offline education? Should we let it advocate the deterioration in mental health of every single student? We have a long way to go in order to make education easily accessible to students living in remote places with no internet connectivity and for students whose families cannot afford the expenses that come with online education. Those students are filled with an equal desire to be able to study as any other student.

When we take our public health sector into consideration, we successfully tackled the first upsurge of covid-19 to some extent, maybe we got a bit lucky back then. The new year brought a sense of hope and positivity amongst the people of India. Well, it also brought along the belief that covid has ended and that the population of India had become invincible now. This is not what I am saying, this is what I saw. Although experts kept warning us about the possibility of another wave and how deadly it could be, we all turned a deaf ear to it. In the time we had between the first and second wave, a lot of improvements in the sector of healthcare could be done. However, it was like covid had ended and that it would never come back.

The onset of the second wave brought the entire nation to ruins. People were lying on streets waiting for their end to arrive as getting a bed in a hospital was nearly impossible.

Oxygen cylinders, hospital beds, necessary medicines and injections, they all seemed to have departed in the midst of people dying, waiting for them to arrive. The graph of covid 19 seemed to have flattened, ironically along the y-axis.

People were trying their best to help others in such a situation, because we all were well aware of how shattering the loss of a loved one is.

Aparna Hegde, a doctor in Mumbai said the strain on hospitals had exposed a lack of preparation and chronic neglect of public healthcare. India spends only about 1 per cent of gross domestic product on the sector. “We don’t

learn from our mistakes at all,” she said. “The first wave ended and we didn’t think that a second wave could come.”

The emergence of coronavirus pandemic brought the entire nation in a state of turmoil. It has brought us in the middle of a nightmare that keeps repeating.

It is said that good decisions come from experience, I now hope that we have had enough experience to be able to realise the urgency of revamping the existing healthcare and education sectors in India. Afterall, how can we call ourselves developed without having access to an infallible system that promotes healthcare and education to every citizen?

The hopes are still high, and I am sure that a better future still awaits us.

By Juhi Gautam