The second wave of coronavirus has led to a serious health and economic crisis far more grievous than the first one. It has not only spread like a wildfire this time but has weakened the healthcare system with hospitals running out of oxygen supply. India is reporting more than three lakh cases daily, which is one of the world’s highest tallies in average daily cases detected.
Many parts of the country are already witnessing imposition of night curfews and weekend shutdowns and if some reports in the media are to be believed government is already contemplating another lockdown just like the nation-wide lockdown during the first wave of the virus.
The impact of the second wave is escalating day by day and we are already facing joblessness; and the issue of migrant labourers is almost resurrected from the grave of the first wave.
According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy the unemployment rate touched average 7.79% for all of India and 9.04% (Urban India), 7.21% (Rural India) by 24 April, 2021, which was 6.50% for all of India, 7.20% (Urban India), 6.18% (Rural India) on 01 April 2021.
Fearing another lockdown, the migrants are already beginning to leave their places of work en masse and this could potentially become a bigger crisis than 2020. And this will ultimately take a toll of our economy. It is important under such circumstances to focus and augment the crisis management system to deal with such situations that could be predicted and all of such situations which will come as being unprecedented.
It has now become indispensable to the modern-day governance mechanism to have a robust and dynamic crisis management system, which requires a lot of innovation and critical thinking. We need a crisis management device within the administration, which can reach out to the needy in times of emergency and vice-versa and perform and deliver efficiently to manage any crisis or disaster. The 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission constituted by Government of India in its 3rd Report titled “Crisis Management – Despair to Hope” which was submitted in September 2006, recommended a set of measures like, firstly, to have a comprehensive revised ‘model’ legislation on public health to prevent the outbreak and spread of epidemics and subsequent enactment by the states according to their local requirements.
Secondly, to have a Union legislation on public health emergencies according to the feedback received from states. Thirdly, the role of the district administration to be particularly mentioned in the Public Health Emergency Bill and the structure under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to be utilised for managing epidemics.
Fourthly, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the state governments to ensure that “standard operating procedures” are put in place so as to assign responsibilities of Government health agencies and personnel to organisations outside the system in case the magnitude of the crisis is beyond the capacity of the authorised organisations or institutions. The present crisis we are going through is a mixture of challenges including medical, financial and social, which needs a policy regime that will cater to all legal, institutional, financial and technical requirements to effectively and pragmatically contain the situation or similar situations.
Besides, the status of Public Health (Prevention, Control and Management of Epidemics, Bio-Terrorism and Disasters) Bill introduced in 2017 should be reviewed and if required an ordinance be promulgated in order to meet the present crisis and to enforce a way to rope in private health institutions without focussing on profit making. At present it is also important to think of the social security of migrant labourers who are already a part of mass exodus that our cities are witnessing and it is also important for the government to think of additional support for the industry struck by the second wave.
Otherwise, it is not a pragmatic approach to perennially enforce a nationwide lockdown, as this is at best an emergency measure, which cannot always be resorted to for a population as big as India.
(The writer is lawyer and public policy expert and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law and Media Studies at School of Mass Communication, KIIT University. He can be reached at sjyotiranjan3@gmail.com)