With the number of cases of Coronavirus positive patients increasing, the University has finally closed down. All the students have been asked to leave the hostel, exams and classes have been cancelled. Ostensibly this is till 31st March and I devoutly hope so. I am kind of resigned. The labs in the University has not been functioning since last November when the students went on strike. We open and we close down. Again and again. This time we functioned at least for 2 months before closing down.
Every one has been talking about social distancing. It can be done if we have large enough flat/house. What will Sumitra, my help, do? She lives in one room with her husband and two sons. There is a tiny kitchen. The room has two beds, one refrigerator, one cooler (summer without one would be simply impossible), and one washing machine. What social distance can the four of them practice? This, unfortunately, is the reality for the majority of the people living in our country.
My colleague, extremely cynical at times, pointed out that this is an infection of the well-to-do. The ones who traveled abroad carried it back to the country. If, he said, it had been infection affecting the poor, no one in the country would have bothered. Which is what happens with TB- the poor are majorly affected and kills more than what Coronavirus will do-but who talks about it?
Every one has been talking about social distancing. It can be done if we have large enough flat/house. What will Sumitra, my help, do? She lives in one room with her husband and two sons. There is a tiny kitchen. The room has two beds, one refrigerator, one cooler (summer without one would be simply impossible), and one washing machine. What social distance can the four of them practice? This, unfortunately, is the reality for the majority of the people living in our country.
My colleague, extremely cynical at times, pointed out that this is an infection of the well-to-do. The ones who traveled abroad carried it back to the country. If, he said, it had been infection affecting the poor, no one in the country would have bothered. Which is what happens with TB- the poor are majorly affected and kills more than what Coronavirus will do-but who talks about it?
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