UNKNOWN, UNIDENTIFIED AND UNNAMED CORONA WARRIORS: A TRIBUTE

Avdhesh Jha

With the advent of the pandemic, the whole world started running for the solution in the absence of which were taken the precautionary measures to keep away the virus and its impact. Gujarat the forerunner also devised many steps one of which was seeking the help of the school teachers to prevent the impact of the pandemic on the society. Till now these government school teachers have served the society and still they have been serving it. As soon as it was ordered, there was a hue and cry and a very light voice came ahead but as usual, the system was strong enough to curb this voice with a threat and thus started the role of the teachers in this pandemic.

Right from the declaration of the lockdown, these government school teachers were assigned their first task which asked them to conduct a Survey with the strict implementation of Social Distancing. This survey insisted the teachers to go door to door, check and take a note of the family members or any of them who suffered from cold, cough and/or fever and report it to their authorities. Amidst the fear of corona, each teacher started this job, although forcibly but ofcourse most of them initiated it whole heartedly. Noteworthy that these teachers had no equipment and no medicine with them as well hardly any idea about how to protect themselves. This was the first major step taken by the system although with the fact that these teachers hardly had any professional medical knowledge and so had to rely only upon the information of the family members which required confirmation and re-confirmation form the neighbours also.  

Since the lockdown continued there were many people who didn’t had the food. For days and weeks, the survey continued and along with it came the additional task of recording the details of the people facilitated by the government through the Fair Price Shops. Noteworthy that the teachers went door to door, collected the details of the people without the Ration Card and then sat on the fair price shop to help them get their right, along with collecting their details as such their name, address, mobile number, adhaar number etc. a report of which was prepared and sent to the authorities and hence the government. Later on, the same was done for the BPL and other card holders with and without ration card. Again, here too these teachers had hardly anything special for them, else than their will and the mask, to protect themselves from being infected. Worth mentioning that while the fair price shop owner had the luxury to close the shop from 1.00 to 4.00, these teachers remained at the shop awaiting the shop to start in the evening. 

Needless to say, along with this, the teachers were involved in paper checking, ofcourse, at their own risk and they did the needful whether willingly or unwillingly. Because the teacher is also a human, he cannot remain without being infected with the surrounding and its stress and so were these teachers which questions their mental health in this period of time which further questions the validity of the evaluation and assessment. Nevertheless, the assessment was conducted and the results were prepared, some of which are declared and others are awaited. For the primary schools, the assignments or question papers were sent and it was the duty of the teachers to assure that it reached the students which again motivated the teachers to reach each door to give those papers to the students.

Apart of this, these teachers were again asked to find out the people as per the norms to whom the government was to give 1000 INR. The teachers had to come up with the account number of such people which was not an easy job but ultimately, it was done.

As of now when such questions are not much in light and the quarantine issues are arising, the teacher is again there working and taking care of the people and disallowing the quarantine people to go to the other places.

Apart of these, the teachers have been successful to conduct online classes, webinars etc. to keep education away from the impact of the pandemic. Like the teachers, there were many other office bearers from the collector office including the collector, the key office bearers from revenue department, agriculture department, industries department and labour department who worked on these issues, risking their life. Not restricting to the government teachers and these office bearers, there were the farmers, cattle rearers, snackers, pharmacist who enabled the milkman, kirana store keepers, chemists and vegetable vendors to serve the society. Not a least exaggeration, each one did it at the cost of their life and thus turned to be a cause to protect the society from worse chaos. Worthy to mention the policemen and the resident doctors for their role in this cause. It’s unfortunate that the society lost many such warriors along with many who suffered with corona. Whereas they deserved the most respect, its pity that even their bodies did hardly get any appropriate timely treatment whether during the suffering or after they bid their last good bye.

Amidst all the odds, it was the role of these warriors who reached the unreached - the people residing in very close contacts in the dense unhygienic conditions who were suffering from poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and were more prone to corona. Apart of the doctor, policemen and health workers, any of these corona warriors were hardly acknowledged. Whether acknowledged or not, it makes least difference because the society pays the tribute directly but again the fact remains that as the doctors and police were repeatedly acknowledged and motivated, these corona warriors who were the ground level workers were hardly even considered worth mentioning. Hereby, through this article, it’s a try to pay the tribute and boost the morale of all such workers without whose help, the situation might have been just worst. Whereas under all safety and convenient conditions, the leaders remained preparing and giving the guidelines, these warriors staked their convenience and safety which added to the lessening of the current chaos. Whether known or unknown, identified or unidentified, named or unnamed; thanks to all these forgotten, unnamed and selfless warriors for being the backbone of the society in this tough time.