By Jahnavi Pradeep ’23
Staff Writer
India is currently witnessing a harrowing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the country’s health care system to its knees and threatening the lives of innumerable people.
The picture is horrifying: Hospitals are flooded and completely out of beds and stretchers, oxygen supplies are running threateningly low and mass cremations and burials are taking place. Whenever my mother calls me from Bangalore, India, the conversation is filled with talk of the rising cases in our neighborhood, the deaths of relatives and fear resettling into everyone’s lives due to the country’s lack of resources and health care means.
This horrific resurgence directly results from incompetency, lax governance and misplaced priorities on the part of the Indian government.
Earlier this year, even as recently as March, the situation in India seemed under control. While the country was still recording several cases each day, its health care system was able to support patients. Additionally, the vaccine rollout furthered the illusion that things were getting back to normal and that the country was successfully battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was accompanied by the misconception that Indians are naturally more immune to COVID-19, leading to vaccine myths and lax social distancing measures. The Print, an online digital newspaper in India, released an opinion article in January stating that all Indians have natural immunity and that the vaccine is more harmful than beneficial to India, a country that was successfully managing the pandemic anyway. This is a sentiment echoed by many Indians.
The Indian populace witnessed second waves sweeping across countries such as the U.K. and the U.S. earlier this year. While India seemed well-off, there arose the assumption that Indians were more immune than the West and that the pandemic had ended in India. This led to people abandoning mask-wearing and social distancing precautions within the country. The Indian government itself further fueled this notion by abandoning necessary regulations.
The Print’s January article chronicled the failure of lockdowns in the U.S. and the U.K. to control the pandemic, saying, “The results have not been good, with both cases and deaths rising despite the shuttered businesses, schools, and places of worship.” The article then advocated for Indian policy planners to avoid lockdowns altogether, given how they had previously “devastated the lives and livelihoods of millions of poor people throughout the country.”
This is precisely what the country has done.
Instead of debunking myths and establishing stronger protocols, the government has acted like the pandemic was over and eased restrictions. Its focus shifted to rebuilding the economy over prioritizing the health and safety of its citizens during the ongoing pandemic.
When I was in Bangalore last year, marshals and police patrolled the streets to ensure that everyone outside of their private spaces and in the company of others was wearing a mask. Failure to wear a mask resulted in being heavily fined. However, come January, the police slowly retreated from the streets, and there was no longer strict monitoring of the public.
Restaurants, clubs, theaters and stadiums began opening up. My social media feed was peppered with stories of youngsters going out to packed clubs, maskless and partying like in pre-COVID-19 times.
Other public gatherings, such as those held in the name of religion, took place: Holi was celebrated with people gathering in crowds across the country. The most horrifying instance was the Kumbh Mela, a major pilgrimage and festival that takes place every 12 years and was conducted in northern India this April. Thousands of maskless people flocked to the Mela en masse.
The problem is the government’s misplaced priorities and inability to prevent such events from happening. The recent Kumbh Mela became a superspreader event that caused a spike in case numbers and deaths.
We are still in a pandemic, and the government should have prevented the celebration from happening altogether, given its prior knowledge about the festival. However, politicians have themselves been engaging in reckless behaviors. They have been conducting political rallies for upcoming elections, inciting large crowds and feeding off the gatherings for their own political agendas. The government’s response in India reflects an attitude that condones and sanctions a lapse in social distancing. COVID-19 is still very much around, and it is not yet time to give up on social distancing measures.
Lasyapriya Rao ’23 agrees with this sentiment, stating, “The government’s lack of planning for the second wave along with their inaction during superspreader events like election rallies and religious gatherings have put the Indian people in a compromising position.”
The Indian government’s constant negligence has resulted in the chilling situation that currently plagues the country, and its previous complacency continues in the form of misplaced priorities and inefficiency. The government is still against a national lockdown in the interest of the economy.
Rehat Thussu ’23 expressed concern over the situation in India, saying, “I truly believe that the government has failed the people of India. India’s first wave in 2020 was bad, but calling the second wave ‘catastrophic’ would be an understatement.” Thussu proceeded to describe the skepticism surrounding the government’s ability to bring the second wave under control. “The vaccine rollout was inefficient before the second wave happened and everyone became eligible. It’s hard to imagine how the government plans to do the vaccine distribution now, especially when [it’s] not even able to provide people with oxygen tanks and beds,” Thussu said.
India’s second wave is a warning to people and countries worldwide that we are still in a pandemic. Seemingly normal circumstances are not normal, and we must continue to practice safe social distancing measures despite decreased news of cases and deaths, vaccines and governments easing restrictions.
The second wave in India is a product of ineffective measures and complacency by the Indian government. It is a reminder to all countries that we still need stringent measures to battle the pandemic.