Health Emergency in India
Every household in India specially in large cities are living in fear.
Fear what if they would be the next one to catch Covid ? fear what if the doctor and hospital beds are not available ? fear what if they will not get Oxygen in case of emergency ? fear of what if they do not get required medicine.
The fear of ‘What If….’ is so strong that children are scared, their parents are worried, doctors are helpless and policy makers are clueless.
There are so many ‘What if…?’ questions that our friends and families are facing in India.
This is story of every household that I know in India.
I live in Dubai and my home town is Delhi-NCR. The residents of Delhi-NCR have another fear, fear that where will they perform the, “Antim Sanskar” (the last rites) of their near and dear one if they loose the battle of survival with Covid.
I have not seen such a fear in my life of 45 years. My children in Dubai are worried about our family and friends in India. Every day the bad news keep coming.
This is the most challenging crisis any government or citizen has faced in independent India.
I feel so sorry about my country and my people. My heart goes to them.
But where actually, the things went wrong ?
Is it only the ugly face of virus that has caused this lethal second wave of Covid ? I am not a health care expert so cannot comment on this, it may be true. But as someone who works in the development sector, one thing I would say and I can say this loud and clear, apart from virus “It is a Collective Failure of responsibilities”.
Failure of government, failure of advisors, failure of think tanks, failure of policy makers, failure of healthcare analysts and biggest failure of residents.
Everyone thought with first wave going off, they are immune to the virus and now no more limitations and restrictions are required. With religious congregations to sports, elections, lavish marriages and parties everything was ‘back to normal’.
The price that the country is now paying for this ‘back to normal’ approach is huge.
The Government got a lot of backlash of the first lock down and now it seems that it was a difficult call but a decision in right direction but this time government is reluctant to close down the country despite such a rapid spread.
As an urban professional associated with cities in India for nearly two decades, I have no hesitation to say that we as city managers and urban planners have also failed miserably. Developing health infrastructure were never a priority in India barring in one or two states. Why simply because, providing a healthcare facility is not a ‘Grand Visible Project’ that can please a politician.
India has launched very high visibility Multi $ Billion projects over the last two decades like urban renewal mission, small and medium cities development scheme, and most recently transforming 100 cities as Smart Cities but within these grand projects the focus was lost on providing basic necessity of health care infrastructure.
Public health professionals are never get involved in managing cities. Public health is equally important as transport or energy or water and sanitation sector.
I am not aware of any reputed University in India offering a quality public health education program in India. There are handful of public health care professionals. As a result this dimension is always missing in urban management approach.
Apart from doctors and health care workers we need public health strategist.
Lets see the numbers:
India’s total healthcare spending is at 3.6% of GDP and as per OECD this is way lower than that of other countries.
The average for OECD countries in 2018 was 8.8% of GDP. Developed nations the US (16.9%), Germany (11.2%), France (11.2%) and Japan (10.9%) spend even more.p
India spends the least among BRICS countries: Brazil spends the most (9.2%), followed by South Africa (8.1%), Russia (5.3%), China (5%).
No doubt this crisis is unprecedented and no country could have managed to control but definitely we could have been better prepared.
With these numbers and current reality in our cities, if I would have been in a decision making role, I would immediately divert the funds from other projects that are low on priority to health infrastructure projects, invite private sector to leverage on government funds to undertake a massive healthcare infrastructure program and will make it a priority to ensure that every one in India should have access to the quality healthcare within the next 5 years to avoid such a disaster in future.
Lastly, I would say that India crisis is also a warning sign for other countries who think that worst is over. Today if this is India, tomorrow it could be any other country. Please do not take this virus lightly.
My message :
Citizens : Mask up, vaccinate and stay at home and do not go out unless absolutely required.
Politicians : Lead an example and follow Covid protocol. This is not a time to blame anyone but to act and deliver a collective governance.
Governments : Invest and prepare your cities for the worst of the worst case. This virus is not going out nearly soon unfortunately.
Policy Makers: This virus is beyond mathematical and statistical modelling and we need our preparedness to get ready for any worst case without looking at numbers. Create a trust and transparent system to address this panic situation. A proper centralized helpline or a web based platform is required to provide real time information to patients and relatives. This information deficit is causing panic and fear and resulting in inefficient system.
Global Community: Please make a collective effort to fight with this virus. Border, politics, supremacy does not matter here, if one is Covid positive, the risk is to everyone. Help and support anyone who is passing through the tough time.
Doctors and Healthcare workers : Much appreciation to your efforts and hard work. The society is indebted to you all.
To sum up…
“Each one of us is Responsible”
