Coronavirus Reads, Digest 3
Is India's lockdown the harshest in the world? And how women could be the silent victims of the outbreak.
It’s Sunday, March 29, 2020
In the last 24 hours, India has reported 106 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and troublingly, 6 deaths. The health ministry has said many of them had underlying health conditions.
Spotlight on the internal Indian Migrant crisis amid the national lockdown.
The Indian government has issued a warning to state governments, asking them to keep migrant workers from crossing states, and asking them to seal their borders, and instead give them temporary shelter and food. The thousands of people that have been travelling have been ordered into 14 day quarantine in state run facilities.
A series of portraits of migrant workers attempting to walk home by Biplov Bhuyan are featured here in the Hindustan Times
But as late as Sunday afternoon, hopeful commuters gathered in Uttar Pradesh’s Yamuna Expressway waiting to catch any kind of transport that would take them closer to their homes. Jatin Anand of The Hindu reports.
There have also been reports that villages worried about allowing migrants to enter when they reached. This story in the Wire reports that seven laborers in West Bengal are self-isolating on the mango tree at the edge of their village for 14 days.
Even without the movement of migrants, social distancing is a privilege, considering how densely populated Indian cities are, writes Rana Ayyub in Foreign Policy.
Health Infrastructure
The Caravan magazine has started a series called “The Rural Frontline,” to focus on ground reports detailing how the pandemic affects Indians in rural areas, where there is limited and weak health infrastructure.
The first story is from the state of Chhattisgarh where the lockdown has disrupted the urgent treatments at the local clinic, including those with tuberculosis and leprosy. By Yogesh Jain and Naman Shah
Prime Minister Modi announced a COVID-19 relief fund called “PM Cares,” which has already received donations from India Inc, and Bollywood celebrities. The government later clarified that contributions to the fund would qualify as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It’s not clear how the funds will be used specifically.
Should the Indian government partner with NGOs and grassroots organizations to reach communities? Two columnists argue, yes.
Sucheta Dalal writes in MoneyLife that “the government will have to work with non governmental organisations (NGOs) who have feet-on-the ground,” especially to distribute essential rations and alleviate hunger.
Radha Khan in The Quint writes that community-based and community-led institutions should be given agency to fight the pandemic, including sensitization of gram panchayats, or village governing councils, to fight against the stigma and provide scientific information..
Is India’s lockdown the harshest in the world?
In Scroll, Shoaib Daniyal writes that India has imposed more restrictions than China, Italy, and the U.S., where the largest outbreaks so far have been. Read on to see the different ways lockdowns and restrictions were used in other countries.
Peter Hessler, writer and professor in Chengdu, China has written about his and his family’s experience in lockdown in The New Yorker. 45 days.
Meanwhile the air pollution in dozens of Indian cities has come drastically down...too bad we’re not allowed to go for walks...
U.S. and International
President Trump toyed with the idea of issuing a quarantine over New York, New Jersey, and parts of Connecticut, but then backed off, the CDC has now issued an advisory to residents of these states to “refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately,” barring critical industries. This as the U.S. now has over 2,100 deaths.
While many New Yorkers have already fled the city to second or family homes, Molly Jong-Fast writes in Vogue why she has no intention of leaving the city, despite the fact that “the New York of right now is not the New York that we have known for all our respective lives. It’s more like post-nuclear-explosion Chernobyl.”
Meanwhile, in China’s Hubei province, domestic air travel has restarted everywhere except its capital Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic.
Some deep, lengthy and detailed reporting from a stellar team at The New York Times on how the pandemic got out of control in the U. S.
The Lost Month: How a Failure to Test Blinded the U.S. to Covid-19 by Michael D. Shear, Abby Goodnough, Sheila Kaplan, Sheri Fink, Katie Thomas and Noah Weiland
Women and feminism in the time of the quarantine
Helen Lewis wrote in The Atlantic last week, about the importance of noting the gendered impact of the outbreak.
She writes, “Across the world, women’s independence will be a silent victim of the pandemic.” This is partially because there’s a greater need for “unpaid caring labor…looking after” the home, children, patients, etc. which structurally falls on women. The Coronavirus is a Disaster for Feminism, The Atlantic.
This is very visible as well in India, where social norms even now push women to handle most of the housework, cooking and childcare when there is no household help or staff. Due to the quarantine, most middle-class households are functioning without their maids, causing gendered strife. Read more in this piece in Scroll.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that lockdowns around the world have led to a rise in domestic abuse, as people have no escape from their abusers during quarantine.
And in New York City, it was announced that women giving birth would not have to be alone. Several private hospitals have had policies where partners or non-patients would not be allowed inside during the pandemic.
What happens after social distancing?
There are a lot of questions on how the pandemic will play out globally, and within the U.S. I’ll be featuring a few reads on the topic as we look to the future.
How the Pandemic Will End, by Ed Young
Joe Pinsker on four possible timelines of returning to normal life.
Side effects of the Pandemic
Podcasts have taken a hit in downloads in the U.S., especially the True Crime genre which have fallen by 30% since early March.
And in Vox, Nisha Chittal writes about how cooking and baking are popular ways to spend time during quarantine, to alleviate anxiety and regain a sense of control in an otherwise uncertain time.