It is an established fact that each disaster has led to a better system, so would the COVID-19 crisis
The COVID-19 crisis has brought to the fore an interesting and unprecedented community-level action. What we are seeing today, across the world and in India, is a union of various Ministries, collaborations, several strange bedfellows (troops trained for war are fighting the Coronavirus). They are all dedicated to stitching together basic sanitation and hygiene practices among individuals and facilities in a “do or die” fight against the pandemic. While the boon of digital connectivity has opened new vistas of information and has filled the gap of critical information, it has fuelled fear. Would the new world order of protective and preventive action last beyond the virulence of the Coronavirus?
COVID-19 has opened afresh discussions on the much-needed funds and facilities for the healthcare sector, the inequity in availability of resources across urban and rural India and their adequacy within these communities. It lays bare the need for feedback loops that inform and determine, on an ongoing basis, the adequacy or the lack of healthcare resources. For instance India has a doctor to patient ratio of close to 1:10,000, as opposed to 1:1,000 recommended by the World Health Organisation. This information is needed to strengthen a bottom-up approach so affordable healthcare facilities are really available. Even more relevant would be to question our practice and belief. Would COVID-19 jolt us into realigning our priorities, in building infrastructure with ethos in protecting the people through a cleaner environment, freedom from toxic air or contaminated water?
In today’s world, the cities are denser, the dependence is global, travel is faster, a hitch-hiking virus disrupts economies sooner and deeper. What is also apparent is that India is not shielded from disasters, whether, natural or man-made. What is uncertain is how seriously does India prepare for future threats and takes actions for better health, protective infrastructure and policies, or puts deeper thought into tracking the healthy and adopts transformative changes to protect its people.
The 1918 influenza pandemic showed India had one of the largest number of deaths in any single country (10-20 million) as well as one of the highest percentage of excess deaths (4.39 per cent) in the world. Similarly, testing times were faced during September 1994 when a plague struck Surat. Hospitals in a number of neighbouring cities of Surat were alerted for possible arrivals of plague-infected people.
The Government had to forcefully stem the exodus of people with the help of paramilitary forces and prevent the disease from spreading. Because the disease was diagnosed and suppressed quickly, the outbreak did not have the devastating impact originally feared but it generated considerable anxiety worldwide. The plague outbreak is pegged to have resulted in a total business loss of over $260 million in Surat. Since then, Surat’s disease surveillance system has been ramped up and healthcare infrastructure enhanced.
Not long ago, on October 29, 1999, a super cyclone with a wind speed of 260 kmph had struck Odisha, making it probably the greatest cyclonic disaster ever recorded in the last century. Effects included a death toll of over 10,000 people; children were orphaned, people injured, livestock lost and over 13 million people were feared affected. In the aftermath of the super cyclone, the capacity of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) was enhanced and the knowledge network that includes the IMD, Earth System Science Observation, the Indian Space Research Organisation, Central Water Commission, Geological Survey of India and National Remote Sensing Centre were created. Today, this network is generating critical information to avert harm from future disasters.
It is an established fact that each disaster has led to a better system, so would the COVID-19 crisis. Building social capital and investing in prevention translate into long-term investments in people, in health infrastructure, building health systems for sustainability, building networks of knowledge. That would be a dream come true.
That health and economy could be so intertwined was not so easy to show until now. Impending disasters from hazardous levels of pollution, rising temperature, threatened nutrient supply linked to climate change, do not conjure up a healthy future for India. Pivotal change is required and would require a marked increase in public expenditure on health as percentage of the GDP of the country.
(The writer is Senior Fellow, Environment and Health at the Energy and Resources Institute)
