ABSTRACT
The corona virus or COVID-19 which has currently stopped the whole world, developed nations like China , United States, Britain have failed to overcome or to decrease the pace of the virus , in such a condition it is of utmost important to understand the status of India and the steps taken by the government to protect its people. As the pandemic was first discovered in China in December 2019 and almost in mid January the disease was seen to be a threat for the nation and on 30th January World Health Organization declared the virus as world health emergency, and in India the first case suffering from corona virus was detected, on the same day still the measures which were taken by the government was on 24th march and a complete lockdown was announced so the question is was India not serious about the issue or was the government so well prepared to control the crisis that it announced the suspension of services in the month of march which is almost two months after the first case knowing that the disease is a communicable disease still the government showed its concern so late ,these are the issues which we need to ponder on and there is a big question that by restricting our movements and keeping us confined to our houses is the government infringing our rights or is it performing the duty assigned to the them.
INTRODUCTION
We must understand the meaning of the word pandemic-( a disease that spreads over a whole country or the whole world) and corona virus is one such disease which has shaken the structure and functioning of the whole world be it developed nations or developing no one is immune from the deadly virus. The source of the spread of this virus was from China and then it moved to whole of the world but situation in China and Italy is breath taking the virus started the destruction in the month of December and a doctor of china Dr Lee informed other doctors in the country about the presence of a new virus which has similar symptoms like pneumonia but was stopped by the administration of the country and was asked to be silent and then the other doctor who discovered the virus was also suppressed by the government authorities and both of them are no more in the world, China did all that it could do to overcome the situation but it failed and the disease was commuting to other nations but nations like United States too didn’t took this pandemic as a serious issue the president of United States said that they are having surplus testing kits and they have all the measures to control the situation unfortunately they also failed somehow and if we see the European Union they also failed to manage the situation and now are consoling people by saying “that they should get used to dying and see loved ones die”. This shows that the developed and welfare states have failed to efficiently control the outbreak of the virus. But India was having time to prepare itself and to work in a constructive manner but we were also not so responsible and we didn’t treated it as a significant issue till 22nd of march and after that day also people of the nation were not so serious I am notsaying that lockdown is not a solution but only isolating people is not efficient the government should increase the health care facilities so that the people who are diagnosed with the disease can be treated properly. Isolating people is the first part to solve the problem the next part is increasing the conditions of health care ,as of now only prevention won’t help us to sustain we should take actions which will be effective to curb the pandemic as people are infected with disease . We are a nation of 1.3 billion so if the population of the country is so huge in number then the steps taken to control the outbreak should also be proportionate with the population our government should have learnt from the countries which have already suffered from the virus and are still suffering that only self quarantine is not a solution , the nation should be prepared with all the medical facilities so that there is no hindrance in the treatment and cure of the patients , the manufacture- supply of masks sanitizers ventilators and all the necessary medical equipments should have an increment .There are always two options through which we can deal with any problem the first is to protect ourself from that problem and the second is to have a proper plan to fight back the problem if we have failed to prevent ourselves ,today our nation is dealing with the problem and there are more than 3000 cases in the country the medical sector of the nation is working to curb the issue, there are laws related to pandemic and health crisis and in this article we will try to find the current scenario of our nations ,the implementations of the persisting laws and the rights and duties of a citizen as well as the government in a situation of health crisis. Tackling a social calamity is not like fighting a war which works best when a leader can use top-down power to order everyone to do what the leader wants with no need for consultation but to deal with a social calamity a active government and alert public discussion is required, listening to public discussion can help the policy makers to understand the ground realities , Napoleon may have been much better at commanding rather than listening but this did not hamper his military success(except perhaps in his Russian campaign) however for overcoming a social calamity , listening is very necessary.
ISSUES
- (i) Whether lockdown is the best way to curb this pandemic, is the government having such rights to restrict peoples,movement in any situation?
- (ii) Measures taken by the health facility and the condition of health care in the nation , the role of individuals in trying to take a step towards the eradication of such a deadly virus?
(i)Whether lockdown is the best way to curb this pandemic, is the government having such rights to restrict movement in any situation?
Governance – the assignment of authority and the specification of procedure is a central pillar of effective pandemic management, without sound rules on ground we can’t protect or fight back this pandemic, right to health and healthy life is a fundamental right and according to me good health condition means a state of complete mental , physical and social well being and not merely absence of any infirmity or disease. It is not the first time that we are struck by such a pandemic in 19th century British India was affected by a disease known as Bombay Plague Epidemic millions of people lost their lives and the epidemic was affecting a large number of people in short span of time so to curb with this disease a law The Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 was enacted .After that India has witnessed a number of infectious disease such as Cholera0139, Chikungunya , H5N1 influenza Japanese Encephalitis these diseases have emerged and remerged and the law has been invoked many times by the states, the law empowers the state as well as central government to take special measures and prescribe relevant regulations as needed during a epidemic.[1] The VII schedule of our Indian constitution mentions public health under state list therefore the state has a lot of discretion in making implementing laws regarding heath issues. But all the states are not financially stable to fight back a situation of pandemic as in recent the Bihar government has asked for help from centre as the state is having shortage of PPE and test kits thus the centre has a major role to play in this time of pandemic. Though these laws are there to curb and control but none of them focus on the basic idea which is availability of equal health care facilities for everyone we have National Health Bill of 2009the bill is a quite progressive and efficient one as it describes epidemic as an outsource of cases of disease in excess than in normal it should be. The bill imposescertain obligations on the government to ensure comparable priority towards right to quality health care services and the well being of all as well as to take effectivemeasures to prevent , treat, and control epidemic. The Epidemic law has a lot of flaws the law is not competent to meet the basic requisite required in current situation for example a complete ban on commercial flights may not align with article 43 of International Health Regulation which talks about proportionality of such ban to potential risk, the privacy of the patient and disclosure of their medical information needs balance with public needs. Experts claim that no such balance prevail in the current laws. Around the world countries have more framed and stringent laws for health issues for example in Australia section 51 of the constitution provides the government with legislative power to quarantine, in United States under the public health and service act, the US department of health and human services has laid down specific guidelines to assist states during health emergencies and prevent the spread of communicable diseases.[2] The lockdown which is imposed is on the furtherance of Directive principle which is reflected in part IV of Indian Constitution article 47 of the DPSP provides the duty of the state to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health . As these rights are non justiciable the regulations is formally imposed by the virtue of four other regulations – section 2 of Epidemic Disease Act 1897, section 50-56 of National Disaster Management Act 2005, section 188 of Indian Penal code 1860 and section144 of Criminal procedure code 1973, the former two statues are regulatory he later two gives authority to the state to invoke criminal charges on anyone violating those restrictions. But if we are availing some rights under DPSP then we should not forget that article 38 – 42 of DPSP talks about the working conditions of daily wage and it is the duty of the state to ensure social justice to workers , as both of them are DPSP now the question arises which is of more importance and should be given priority, while these remain non-justiciable the law ensures protection of the rights of worker under the ambit of article 21 , the government is now at a crossroad whereby it has to grapple between the health of citizen at large and the right to life and personal liberty.
(ii) Measures taken by the health facility and the condition of health care in the nation, the role of individuals in trying to take a step towards the eradication of such a deadly virus?
If we talk about health care services in India then there is one Doctor per 1000 patient , scarcity of beds no proper testing kits and the poor conditions of hospitals , under investment in public health has hit India hard though India is not among the worst hit countries affected but its grossly under- funded system is an alarming haunt to the situation, over the past few days we come across news such as people are running away from isolation centre and health care centre and hiding travel history so there is trust deficit in people they are not sure that whether the doctors or medical personnel will be able to improve their condition rather they have a fear that their health will deteriorate if they stay in hospitals , Epidemiologist and public health experts say that increasing expenditure in the public health is the key to build trust , an overstretched public health care system forces million of Indians to turn to the unregulated private health care sector. The Indian government expenditure on health as a percentage of GDP is 1.5% one of the lowest in the world. For around52% of household in urban and 44% in rural area go for private health care sector.[3] This is the time to win the trust of people and to ensure them of their health life by increasing the amount of percentage allotted in GDP of health car , a good government should always work toward the betterment of the health of people as government will only be able to exercise its power when it has a healthy and prosperous citizen. When we look around the world that how the world is trying to cope with the disease and what is the situation in our country though by Gods grace we are not the one among the worst hit but still the number of people being infected is increasing rapidly and we are a populous state if we will not work together then our nation will have to pay for this , we as individuals are always ready to criticize the government and to pin out the flaws in the system but we all forget that we as a citizen if this nation , as a human beings have some duties towards the nation , towards the world at large , if we are behaving responsibly then 50% of problem will have its solution , the privileged class should come up with open hands to help the poor and needy , so that they are also able to fight this virus , the major concern for the poor is that they don’t have food and to sustain they want food so to meet their basic needs they are there on the streets we all should have empathy towards them and help in every possible ways , instead of spreading fake news and hatred in the society we should all work together for the betterment of the nation , this is the time when our patriotism is at question and we will be true patriot only when we are taking at least a baby step towards fighting back the disease , Karl Marx has given the concept of haves and have not’s i.e. he has divided the society on two groups on the basis of the wealth and resources available to two sectors of the society , the people who are privileged to have the facilities of the society or basically the capitalist were in the category of haves and the working class in the have not’s so I believe that is the time the “Haves’’ should come forward and help the “have not’s’ .
CONCLUSION
A pandemic is not liking fighting a war it is more worse than that too almost 199 countries of the world is affected by this deadly virus and millions of lives have come to an end , all the super power and under power are on the same table no one has a complete solution to this problem we all are trying to avoid this by social distancing not basically social distancing as we all are socially connected but by physical distancing , by following the guidelines laid by the health care centers , and we should all try to spread good news positivity instead of spreading rumors and hatred in the society , multinational globalization which is a boon to the society but somewhere this responsible for the spread of this virus as from China to India from UK to US and all the other states are infected because of this globalization ,this virus has its roots in China but now very few nations are immune from this virus. In India we are having a lot of loopholes in the system t fight this problem yet we are having the fearlessness to communalize this virus by giving names such as CORONA HIJAD and other stunned captions thus we all should try to eradicate this habit of clubbing religion to every problem religion is a personal belief and we have the freedom to practice profess and propagate religion but we can’t use religion as s tool for politicizing this pandemic .
[1]https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2020/04/chiradeep-basak-public-health-law-india/
[2]https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/view-disinformation-in-times-of-a-pandemic-and-the-laws-around-it/articleshow/74960629.cms?from=mdr
[3]https://healthmanagement.org/c/icu/issuearticle/healthcare-scenario-in-india
