Misplaced priorities in India

India is also in the grip of a deadly Carona virus. The entire nation is in the grip of fear.  There is a complete lockdown in the entire country. This lockdown has been extended for another twenty-one days. Air-services, train services, transport, metro-services, educational institutions, government offices etc, all have been closed for twenty-one days. Only essential services, hospitals, banks and grocery markets will function for limited hour's every-day.

However, the situation is not very serious. The government of India is doing a very good job to control the spread of the virus. The entire government has thrown its complete resources in its efforts. Its efforts are also showing positive results. Due to these efforts, the spreading of the epidemic has been controlled considerably.  So far around five hundred people are detected with Corona positive and only five people have died due to the virus.

 In India, this virus has spread by the people who have come back from foreign countries. On humanitarian grounds, the government of India helped the Indians, stranded in foreign countries. These people brought and imported the virus into the country. Moreover, these people created all types of problems for going to checking and co-operating with the authorities. They behaved in a very dangerous and lawless manner.

Maximum affected people came from Iran, Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries. But the government of India did not impose the travel ban on such people. Moreover, on the arrival of India, these people did not co-operate with the doctors and the authorities. At some places, they even started rioting and damaging the public property. At Srinagar airport, some passengers returned from Dhaka. They refused to undergo all the tests and restored to violence and rioting. Similarly, few people refused to undergo medical tests, arguing that in Islam, such tests are not allowed.

Muslims created the maximum problems and they were not ready to go for the medical checkup in the name of their religion that Allah will save them. In most of their areas, they were not ready to co-operate with the police and the authorities for the lockdown and people's curfew. Even they are not ready to cancel their agitation and strikes in the name of anti-CAA and anti-NRC acts. Their attitude is very dangerous and endangering the lives of the people. They also didn't stop their Namaz on the roads and public places, endangering the lives of the other people.

Doctors and medical staff are grossly unequipped. They don't have the necessary equipment to protect themselves. The situation is under control now, but the pattern of increase in the number of Corona infected patients will be difficult to handle. But the country of 1.3 billion populations scares every possibility of community transmission which may lead to a massive increase in the number of affected patients. Government doctors are apprehensive that there will be soon shortage of basic protective gear like masks, gloves and sanitizers. The situation is very bad in states like Maharashtra, Bengal and Kerala. Doctors don't have N95 surgical masks. They are just using cotton masks.  Protective hood covers are also not inadequate supply. For treating the critical acre patients, doctors cannot do without the hoods. Hospitals, doctors and the support staff are not equipped to face the impending emergency. Even the guards outside the wards and ICU are also exposed to the danger.

There is hardly any training for the doctors and the staff to meet any disaster. There is no facility to train the staff. The doctors and staff have a very old type of training which they have many years ago while studying. Years of practising makes a man rusty and out of date. They have hardly any training sessions. Most of the staff has no experience to face something like this. Everybody should be mentally and educationally equipped to face such a situation. Everybody is scared.

India has highly misplaced priorities. Religion, caste and vote banks are above the nation and health of the people. The health sector was never a top priority to any government or the party. India has around twenty-five lakhs Non-Government Organizations, getting thousands of crores as government grants but they are doing nothing in this hour of need. Similarly, India has lakhs of government-funded madrasas, mosques, minority institutions, Haj Houses, Waqf Boards etc.

The government spends thousands of crores on these minority institutions but none is doing anything for the nation and the people. In the name of social justice to India spends thousands of crores on so many caste groups like SCs, STs, OBCs etc. On account of these schemes, hardly any money is left for the health sector.

So, all the government should stop the freebies and freeloading schemes. This money should be used in the health sector. Most Of the political parties and leaders do nothing but only indulge in the freebies and freeloading schemes to win the election. Such mentality has ruined the nation and the people. Now the nation feels all the schemes are useless and senseless. The government of India should stop all such senseless exercise and start strengthening the health and medical sector and health sector. This is a very urgent need.