How The Indian Government Failed India in The Crises
By: Niyati Jain
Tags: Coronavirus, World, Health, Politics, Leadership

How The Indian Government Failed India in The Crises

#PMcares doesn’t mean the PM cares

Photo by Prashanth Pinha on Unsplash

‘जो जहाँ है वहीं रुक जाये, 21 दिन तक’, translating this to English it says “stop, wherever you are, just stop, for 21 days". These words were spoken by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi. It’s interesting to know the time: 8:00 PM. He requested the people of India to lock themselves inside their homes for 21 days, suddenly, with no prior notice. But what about the ones who were homeless?

Lockdowns, which were imposed in most of the countries of the world to fight the COVID crises, took place in the country with the second largest population in the world on 21 July 2020. Stating the fact that India is still a developing nation, has around 7% of its population living below the poverty line. This approximates to around 10 million people earning less than 40$ a month. Most of these people are daily wage workers, which means they get paid every day for the work they do and have no job security.

The beginning

On the night of 21st, PM of India announced that the country would witness a nation-wide lockdown for a period of three weeks. The lockdown announced at eight in the night would come to effect from twelve. It gave a shock to the Indian population as there was no prior notice for the same. People stuck in different cities for work purposes were left unconsidered.

While it was easier for the middle class and the upper classes to survive the lockdown, who had a house, money in their accounts and food to fill their bellies, it turned out to be a mess for the lower classes to survive, who had no job security and were mostly daily wage workers such as labourers.

All they were left with was absolutely nothing in their hands. Their voices were suppressed and they were left to die on the streets. Only if, they were given some time to return to their respective houses, that were present in different states and cities, miles away from where they worked, some of them would have survived.

In the crises

After the announcement of the sudden pause in the lives of the people, the whole nation lost its peace. The media glorified the Government’s decision stating “prevention is better than cure”. Indeed, the saying is true but how does it justify creating another disaster to suppress one. Then, the Government stated that they had taken a very wise decision by announcing the sudden lockdown. Ironically, India has become the 2nd worst country hit by the crises, that proves how wise the decision was.

Absolutely a lockdown was needed but not at the cost of lives of thousands of people, who died with hunger, homeless, and hopeless. It could have been issued with a prior notice to give everyone sufficient time to arrange their requirements for a period of 21 days which further extended to another 3 weeks.

The Government failed miserably, addressed unimportant problems and glorified its decisions with illogical justifications. Some of the evident disasters that took place and left unheard were as follows:

1. Frontline workers' safety left unnoticed

The nation witnessed incidents such as lighting of candles and clapping hands and utensils in respect of the people working in the pandemic such as doctors, nurses, policemen, and many others who worked when the whole world was paused. But they got nothing beyond the respect that was given on just the two above mentioned incidents.

Most hospitals were not provided with PPE kits, masks, gloves for doctors, nurses and staff members. An insufficient number of beds were present and no proper arrangements. The Government only focused on its own promotions, hiding facts and statistics from the people of India. They were told that everything was fine, in place and there was no need to worry.

The frontline workers were left unheard in their demands to keep their safety in mind. If you moved out on the streets and visited a hospital, only then you would realize what the actual situation was. Many died trying to save the lives of others due to lack of safety arrangements made by the Government.

2. Hiding facts and statistics

There are some serious issues with the statistics the Government provides to the people of India. In a recent YouTube video that I watched (shot in the crises), when a person visited the hospital to find out the situation there, he was terrified. Families receiving no further information about the patient once admitted. Doctors working without masks and kits.

Death numbers were lied about. After enquiring the watchman of the hospital he said that at least 10 deaths took place each day at the hospital. Think! 10 deaths in just one hospital of one city, imagine how many cities are there in the entire country and how many hospitals. And Government provides stats stating the death rate to be 1000 deaths per day.

Later the Government announced a package of worth 265 billion $ for the Indian people, of which no one received a single penny. Huge donations were made by people in the name of a fund( PMCares fund) organized to help people in the crises. But the money donated gained no update and there is no data where all the money was gone.

3. The Youth and citizens left unheard

PM organizes a session known as ‘Mann ki Baat', which translates to ‘a talk from the heart’ every few days. In this session, he addresses the problems of the country and presents his views on the same. But ironically it’s not well understood whether the talk is about the topic he wants to address or is it about what the people want to be addressed?

Let me explain it further, in the middle of the pandemic he talked about ‘toys’, ‘mud utensils’ and everything unrelated and insignificant as compared to the crises. While the citizens kept trending hashtags of the topics such as student exams, loss of jobs, and lack of facilities provided in the hospitals, all he could find to talk about was ‘toys’. It feels sad to know that in the world’s largest democracy, India, the people’s voice is suppressed.

In the end

Real stories don’t have a happy ending. And neither does this one. With thousands left to die on the roads, people were left with no better options. They walked thousands of miles crossing state boundaries, remained hungry for days, with no food and water and no money in their pockets. They walked endlessly in the hope to reach their home someday. Thousands lost their jobs and their loved ones.

But even today, if you search on the internet about India’s Corona crises, you will rarely find news about the dark sides. Only, what you will see is the glorification of false facts with 0 logical reasons stated. It's important to not blindly trust what is told and showed, but take a step and find it out yourself. It’s pathetic to know the real story, cause everything that glitters is not gold.