We are fighting hard to protect people from coronavirus not to let them die of hunger. The nation is facing two equally disastrous emergencies. The corona pandemic has caused lockdown of people and shutdown of the economy.
There has to be plans for how best to reach confined people to provide the help needed for their survival. So there is not only one crisis to take care of. There has also to be well-thought-out strategy to meet the financial needs of the people.
The lockdown cannot be put into practice denying the confined people’s basic necessities of life. They cannot be thrown out shelterless and means of livelihood for survival. Because they cannot go out and earn money. Jobs are closed. The government has to understand the depth of the crisis nationwide and individually. The distribution of charity now then cannot be the solution.
We cannot try hard to protect the people against coronavirus only to let them die of hunger unprotected. The government has to find resources to pay wages they cannot get. Selling rice at a cheaper price is useless if the people have no money to purchase.
The hard reality is both the businessmen and the workers are starved of money. Huge amount of easy money is available with big and powerful looters known by the government. They should be asked to return the public money. They could not return the whole amount as those are not kept in the country.
Confining people at home by lockdown is an extreme form of social distance. Social distance also means maintaining a distance of 6 feet among each other and avoiding public gatherings. Social distancing is not easy to implement like lockdown.
But it is no less important that the people should be educated in social distancing. It means changing our lifestyle. The fight is against corona pandemic when both lives and economy are threatened to be extinguished. The government has to be all vigilant.
Lockdown will not work at gun point unless monetary help is considered urgently. Daily labourers will try to break the lockdown in search of jobs and income for their badly hurt families. Like the workers of the garment sectors other poor workers must need government help.
It is not to be kind to say that if anybody wants to run his business at his own risks he can do so when the government knows the risk is death. Essential services should remain open but under strict safety arrangements.
Many newspapers have suspended publications. As there is no business so there is no advertisement — the life blood of a newspaper. Few others are published with skeletal staff. Unless the demands of the journalists for cash help like the employees of other industries are met then only big businesses will be able to sustain their newspapers
No question of surviving a newspaper honestly with its own income at this present situation. So providing help for the journalists should be taken seriously.
The press is an essential national service for communication with the people.
Under a general shutdown policy of the government the employers have cease to be employers. They have no business. They are without the ability to pay. So the government is the only source for the employees to get the necessary financial assistance.
The joint task force the government has formed jointly with the armed forces should be used jointly to fight the coronavirus comprehensively. They should be placed at the centre of all the emergency activities. Otherwise, joint task force shall exist only in name.
The unseen war against the coronavirus can really be defeated by inventing a special injection by medical scientists. There is a strong thinking to use some kind of anti-malaria tablets, not as a cure, but for temporary relief.
This is the time for national unity. But in our intolerant politics and under our political leadership nothing like this is likely to happen.
