India coronavirus dispatch: 'Lives vs lives', not 'lives vs livelihoods'

Here is a selection of important articles on Covid-19 from across Indian publications. From making labour systems work, to post-Covid-19 economic models, and why cities have become epicentres of coronavirus outbreaks – read these and more in today’s India digest.

Expert Speak

Covid-19 lockdown debate is ‘lives vs lives’, not ‘lives vs livelihoods’: The debate on easing or extending lockdown restrictions in the wake of Covid-19 is a matter of ‘lives versus lives’, and not of ‘lives versus livelihoods’ as currently being framed. Read this interview with Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford University to understand why.

Citizens Under Lockdown

Andhra fishers rescued from Gujarat the human face of a sector in turmoil: The fishers represent the human face of the ongoing turmoil in the country’s fisheries sector, which contributes Rs 1.75 trillion — or $26.3 billion, nearly equivalent to the Centre’s Covid-19 relief package for the poor — to India's gross value added, and employs 16 million people. The sector is now staring at lost revenues and livelihoods. Read more here.

Long Reads

Four future scenarios, or what’s different about the Covid-19 crisis? What should we expect after the coronavirus pandemic? Four scenarios contain four very different futures. A better world is only possible if social actors seize this opportunity to overcome the inequalities this crisis has laid bare. Read more here.

Opinion

Post-Covid-19 economic models, rules of governance, must be bottom-up, not top-down: Covid-19 marks the end of the economics’ paradigm of the Washington Consensus. New models of economies, and new rules of global governance, must be bottom-up, not top-down. That’s how the whole world can move from relief to recovery, and into resilience. Read more here.

Doctors deserve dignity, security as they risk their lives during the pandemic: According to a 2017 study by the Indian Medical Association, over 75 per cent of doctors have faced violence at work and 56.5 per cent thought of hiring security at the place of their practice. Read more here.

Privacy concerns during a pandemic: The state’s most significant responses to the pandemic have been predicated on an invasive use of technology that seeks to utilise people’s personal health data. Read here on why while the measures deployed intuitively sound reasonable, but the mediums used in implementing the programme overlook important concerns relating to the rights to human dignity and privacy.

Managing Covid-19

Making labour systems work: We should pause and see that after years of breaking rocks, welding in the heat, carrying heavy loads, and inhaling unclean air to create the infrastructure that fuels economic growth, workers don’t even have enough money to survive this period of lockdown. How do we create a system of labour and profit that is more balanced and equitable? Read more here.

Why cities have become epicentres of coronavirus outbreaks – and how to combat this: We can improve how we build, organise and use cities, but to do this we need to look more closely at the urban spread of coronavirus and understand its impact on existing inequalities. We can also learn lessons from the past impact of epidemics on the most vulnerable urban populations. Read more here.

Why is Gujarat a Covid-19 hotspot? Gujarat is one of the most prosperous states in India, but it is showing a worrisome performance with regard to Covid-19 spread compared to others. Why so? Read here.

The public sector is crucial for self-reliance in vaccines and public health: We must address the huge shortages that plague our public healthcare system through self-reliance. Read here on why this applies to government hospitals, doctors, paramedical staff, public sector research and drugs, devices, diagnostics, ventilators, protective gear, etc. 

MHA allows inter-state movement of stranded migrants, students: Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday allowed movement of migrant workers, tourists, students, etc, stranded at various places across the country, but under certain conditions. In an order, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said buses should be used for transport of such groups of stranded people and these vehicles would be sanitised and have to follow safe social-distancing norms in seating. Read more here.

Understanding Covid-19

Why a new Covid-related disease among children has Europe worried: Children in the UK are reportedly falling ill with symptoms of high fever and swollen arteries, and doctors believe it could be coronavirus-related. On Monday, the Paediatric Intensive Care Society (PICS) said it had observed in the last three weeks an “apparent rise” in the number of children, of all ages, with a “multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care”. Read more here.

What extra care should I take if I visited a Covid-19 high-risk area? While outdoors, maintain at least one-metre distance from others — especially if someone is coughing or sneezing. It is widely accepted that the novel coronavirus spreads itself through droplets released in abundance when someone coughs or sneezes. Read more here.