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This is the first column in The Politics of a Pandemic, a series that aims to examine and critique some of the political and governmental reverberations of COVID-19.The Indian population is 1.3 billion, according to the government census, which I believe I need not explicitly mention is a gross undercount. Those left out include, but are not limited to, the 2 million declared illegal by a piece of legislation in the state of Assam in 2019, the greatest mass disenfranchisement in human history.Often when we speak of events and injustices in India, people dont realise just how many people are being affected. Now, COVID-19 has changed the world to say the least, and it is no secret that lower income countries are disproportionately struck.When COVID-19 hit, India managed, at first, to keep its reported cases in double digits. Of course, we cannot forget that this is primarily because of its woefully low testing rates. Nevertheless, for a second, the public could wrap themselves in a false sense of security and relish the calm before the storm. Which is not to say that there was much to enjoy before.Ever since Narendra Modis ruling party, the BJP, secured a second mandate from the people in the 2019 General Elections, India has suffered. Come December it saw huge protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens, strategic instruments of furthering communal divide and partisan politics, and in January, it saw riots that put it back on Genocide Watch.The CAA and NRC elicited country-wide resistance, the symbol of which was Shaheen Bagh, a road in the capital where a 24-hour, 100-day long peaceful sit-in took place by thousands of courageous protestors led by inspiring Muslim women. But COVID-19 gave the government a clean chit to dispel the protestors, even though many other mass gatherings continued across the country. The women of Shaheen Bagh left their slippers and shoes at the site as a symbol of solidarity. This is one of the political costs of COVID-19 people having to cave in to their fascist governments who shall happily use any excuse to claim victory and paint over dissent.And speaking of COVID-19-sanctioned draconian measures, immigration law and borders come next. Often in the cacophony of the wall, people forget that the US isnt the only country with a serious case of xenophobia. India is one of the rich, forgotten examples of this global trend. The anti-globalization that the pandemic has triggered, counterintuitive as it sounds, has crystallized boundaries around the world. The Indian government has seized this opportunity and strengthened control between India and Bangladesh and India and Myanmar. And for those who had nearly forgotten about the Rohingya refugees, that tragedy is still going strong.But a bigger (only numerically; there is no hierarchy of suffering) problem looming on the Indian horizon right now is the internal migrant crisis. Millions of Indians from rural regions travel hundreds of miles to make their livelihoods on the threshold of urbanity. And they are all out of work.COVID-19 necessitates everything go remote and online. And despite all the racist American jokes about tech support, India sorely lacks the digital infrastructure for such a shift. And so unemployment, already at a decade-high before the virus, has now skyrocketed to 23.4 percent. Many people will be jobless, and the government shall be able to conveniently pin its failures on the global recession. How many people? 23.4 percent rounds to about 400 million people, which for the record is the entire US population and then some. One in five people in a country responsible for one in seven people in the world. This is 1 in 35 human beings on Earth.I will not hesitate to say that this is a humanitarian crisis.If this isnt an alarming enough development, allow me to shed some light on the communalizing of COVID-19. For a constitutional democracy, India is very good at being a practicing authoritarian state. Freedom of press sounds like a Stone Age advertisement, and very few trustworthy sources of information remain, theWire and the Indian Express being two of them. Many even refuse to publish op-eds or consider the idea that the BJP-led government might be flawed, either because they are terrified, or because they share its views. Foreign media is hailed as inaccurate and funded by Islamic nations.There isnt much to explain but that the inherent Islamophobia of the administration and its staunch devotees is revealing itself quite unabashedly. There was a 8,000-strong meeting of an Islamic missionary group the Tablighi Jamaat against lockdown orders and nearly a third of cases have been linked to it. What people ignore is that this happened between March 1 and 15, and the government said on March 13 the coronavirus is not a health emergency.On March 19, a Hindu temple hosting 40,000 visitors per day finally closed. The lockdown was announced on March 24. However, only the Jamaat incident has been weaponized to make it appear that Muslims are deliberately attempting to spread the virus. And because the claim couldnt hold itself, old videos from 2017 of a man spitting on food are being circulated as false evidence.Further, the medical superintendent of an Ahmedabad hospital is said to have segregated patients on the basis of faith on government-orders, which the ministers have subsequently denied. And so in 2020, the largest democracy in the world is perfecting the South Asian version of the structural racism model that the oldest democracy is desperately trying to claw its way out of.Already, the separation of Hindus and Muslims and the upper and lower caste Hindus in most cities has laid the ground for this the renewed reports of lynching adding to the pile of things we inherited from our ancestors. Last week, three men suspected of being child kidnappers and organ harvesters were lynched by a senseless mob in Palghar and not a day after, false reports of how sadhus (Hindu ascetics) were killed by a mob of Muslims made their regular rounds.

Protest, one might suggest, in the fraught times? The lockdown has made it impossible to risk even voicing concern or criticism without repercussions. Under the veil of paranoia-induced distraction, multiple journalists and critics of the government have been arrested for conspiring against the State.I want to end this with two more snippets of the pandemic narrative: widespread discrimination against Indians with stereotypically South East Asian features and the spineless government allowing private hospitals to charge citizens for COVID-19 treatment.And did I mention the prime ministers response has been to ask us to light candles and bang kitchen pots on our balconies? Too bad for those who dont have any.

Tanisha Tekriwal is a Weinberg freshman. She can be contacted at tanishatekriwal2023@u.northwestern.edu. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to opinion@dailynorthwestern.com. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.

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Opinion | Pay Attention to India - Daily Northwestern

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The selected cartoons appeared first in other publications, either in print or online, or on social media, and are credited appropriately.

In todaysfeatured cartoon, PM Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seem to have reached an impasse as illustrated by Manjul.

R. Prasad illustrates how Prime Minister Narendra Modis infamous comment that those who are violent, can be identified by their clothes last year, has not aged well in light of the criticism by the Arab world.

EP Unny points fingers at the government, alleging theyre not doing enough even when they can.

A moving cartoon by Satish Acharya about a 12-year-old girl who passed away due to exhaustion after walking for three days to go back home amid the lockdown.

Alok Nirantars take on the changing face of the earth, this Earth Day.

Kirtish Bhatt draws parallels between the oil prices that plunged to negative with the migrant crisis of India, where people are losing lives due to starvation.

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The Centre-state face-off on Covid-19 and Earths changing face - ThePrint

MONACOWalking back controversial statements about the Covid-19 crisis after a harsh backlash, Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic clarified his anti-vaccine comments Tuesday by insisting he has always clearly supported having sponsors. Look, I know some people took what I said out of context, but I am 100% supportive of being in commercials, and I would never do anything to jeopardize that, said Djokovic in a press statement, going on to state that he would never want to give the public the false impression that he was someone who could not sell Seiko watches. I think everyone who knows me recognizes that Ive been very sympathetic to the brands, products, and services that pay large sums of money for me to endorse. It would be completely reckless for me to damage my relationship with Lacoste, and I hope they know that. Why would I want to make a public health disaster like coronavirus worse when that only limits my earning potential? Djokovic ended the press release by inviting his fans to ask him whatever they wanted about the European migrant crisis or the Yugoslav wars of the 90s.

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Novak Djokovic Clarifies Anti-Vaccine Comments By Insisting Hes Always Supported Having Sponsors - The Onion

The Congress on Wednesday asked the government to probe the "role" of the Railways Ministry for migrant crisis in the country, with party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help the stranded workers reach their villages.

The Congress also questioned the government on why railway bookings continued during the lockdown.

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"After all, why does every disaster break on the poor and the workers? Why are decisions not taken while taking them into consideration. Why are they left on God. Why was booking of railway tickets allowed to continue during the lockdown," Priyanka Gandhi asked.

She said the workers were the backbone of the country and the government should help them reach their villages.

"For God's sake, Narendra Modi ji please help them," Priyanka Gandhi said.

Read:Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

"Why were special trains not arranged? Their money has finished and so have their stock of ration. They are feeling insecure and want to go home in their villages. Arrangements should have been made for them. They can still be helped with proper planning," the Congress general secretary said in a tweet in Hindi.

Congress leader Ahmed Patel said the "role" of the Railways Ministry must be probed for the crisis among the migrants.

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"Why were train services abruptly stopped leaving migrants stranded? Why was railways accepting bookings despite no clarity on lockdown extension," he asked.

Chaotic scenes were witnessed in some railway stations in Mumbai on Tuesday after a large number of migrants landed up there looking for trains to reach their homes. Police had to intervene to disperse them.

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Probe role of Railways Ministry for migrant crisis: Congress to govt - Deccan Herald

Hyderabad | Updated: April 17, 2020 9:57:42 pm

Written by Ipsita Sapra

Certain images haunt us for a lifetime. Thousands of desperate migrants assembling at Bandra Station in Mumbai to catch a train back to their villages. Groups of migrants walking hundreds of kilometers towards their villages with their meagre belongings. As the world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, a picture of desperation is unfolding in India over the past few weeks.

Looking through a sociological lens, this article foregrounds some perturbing social and psychological consequences of the pandemic that needs serious engagement. Indeed, left unattended, this has the potential to shatter social stability as desperate people might soon refuse to accept norms that have moderated society in the pre-COVID era.

A significant number of migrant workers have experienced an abrupt breakdown of cash flows. Job losses, pay cuts have been commonplace, while basic expenses have remained, at best, unchanged. All of a sudden, a large number of migrant workers who worked hard, lived with dignity and were self sufficient for meeting their basic needs and also for sending remittances to their families back home, are facing abject economic deprivation. Their clamour for the basics of life is considered an unlawful act during the lockdown. In some places, they have been at the receiving end of police action for violation. Their dignity as self-reliant workers and breadwinners for the families back home is severely compromised.

As innate resilience gives way to desperation, there are chances of disintegration of the social order. The biopsychosocial model of health, a framework developed by George L. Engel in 1977, captures COVID-19 type situations from the lens of interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors that influence the outcome of disease. Given that COVID-19 is a public-health emergency with tremendous social and psychological manifestation, it is important to engage on these aspects with much greater attention than what has been done thus far.

The social fabric is going through a metamorphosis in the COVID-19 situation and we might see a tectonic shift in the way social and economic life is organised.

Way back in 1893, Emile Durkhiem, the renowned French sociologist, in his work, The Division of Labour in Society, had engaged with the ideas that kept society together. He had asserted that modern societies, characterised by differentiation and specialisation of roles, is kept together by the very dependence which individuals develop on each other.

Cut to modern day societies, this interdependence is taken for granted. It is not perfect, with some roles more rewarded, or more marginalised than others. For example, the real estate sector is totally dependent on the construction workers. However, distribution of wealth across the different players in the sector is very skewed. Even in such sectors, there is a semblance of equilibrium. It is this tentative stability of social solidarity through interdependence that holds society together.

COVID-19 seems to have altered this tremendously. The suddenness of the lockdown left no room for preparedness for many, especially the poor. The trauma and distress conjured up a picture of grave uncertainties. Not only are the migrants running out of food stock and cash reserves, with depleting resources and supplies, they are increasingly running out of patience. Worse, they are running out of hope.

Social solidarity is now very likely to hang by a thread. Are we heading towards, anomie, a state described by Durkhiem as that of normlessness that stems from a feeling of deep disconnect from the rules of a society? This often occurs during periods of drastic and rapid changes that disrupt the conventions that guided the social, economic, or political structures of society.

The accounts of migrants reflect a breakdown- the city is no longer the home. Home is only where intimate relations are. Home is where the small patch of land, the only semblance of an asset, remains. Home is the only address that the Public Distribution System (PDS) of the country recognises. This city is just a workspace opaque, cruel and now, diseased. These narratives point to a sharp distinction between the pre and post pandemic world order. The norms that were accepted during the pre COVD-19 period might be challenged by the millions who have been pushed to the margin like never before, and who no longer find these valid.

The psychological consequences of the pandemic are also enormous. The focus on transmission of the infection does not allow sufficient public attention to psycho-social imprints on the affected individuals as well as in the general population. This is particularly true in a country like India where resources for mental health care are grossly inadequate. Emotional wellbeing is severely tested as migrant workers are now also unable to return to their families and social connections. This exacerbates existing mental health issues and creates newer ones. The likely manifestations of frustration could be self-harm or violence against partners and children. This may also lead to defiance of law and order, and attack on frontline police officials trying to enforce lockdown.

The larger consequence of this could be a civil unrest. In the age of social media, such news will travel swiftly and have a cascading effect across the country. Once out of hand, this can spell doom for all efforts at containment, while bringing enormous misery to all concerned.

Is there a solution to this looming crisis?

Two specific dimensions need to be considered.

The first is the welfare entitlements of the migrants. These should be a range of immediate measures that can address the heightened economic distress caused by the pandemic. This includes assured food supply, safe shelter, state transfers to cover basic expenses and access to any medical needs. These can be supported over the medium term with measures such as portable and universal Public Distribution System, a revamped MGNREGA with greater outreach.

The second is through timely and authentic communication. Even in uncertain times, clear and timely communication about the next meal or shelter and transport arrangements can go a long way in assuaging anxieties. Authentic information, such as preventive measures, disseminated in accessible format, such as short WhatsApp videos, can be reassuring. Ability to speak to loved ones without having to worry about the call expenses can replenish hope. This can be done through trained psychological counsellors and social workers.

All of these measures, social and psychological, are not to be seen as doles of a benevolent state or charity of civil society organisations. These have to be understood as basic components of social justice and as critical enablers of stability and solidarity in the extraordinary times of the pandemic.

Ipsita Sapra is Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad

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