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.

COVID 19: IMPACT ON EDUCATION

Avdhesh Jha

The little corona with its silent declaration of war against humanity terrorized humanity. With lockdown and the advisories from the government, it created deep impact on the society. Especially in the education field, it brought about dramatic changes. The advisories and the notices sent by the different governing bodies, councils and the boards of education stressing on conducting researches and related activities brought about changes at all levels of education whether primary, secondary or tertiary.

With all the imposed advisories from the authorities, the institutional heads without taking a least time to think, acted by forwarding it to their colleagues and the channel continued until it came to an end. It was only then, many who never prepared a paper, prepared the research papers within the four walls. With the existence of autocracy in most of the universities, institutes and colleges especially in the private sector, the institutional heads started exploring the other alternatives and ZOOM became the popular. Whereas in higher education some of the teachers used ZOOM as a platform to conduct online classes and some enthusiastic used it as a platform for webinars, it was merely abused by most of the institutional and organizational heads for the day long meetings continuing for the weeks and a month with their subordinates without any substance. It was pity that when the country and the fellowmen were suffering, these heads continued on discussing post COVID 19 opportunities for the monetary benefits.

Zoom, not only restricted to higher education reached the schools and tuition classes. As if these were less, some schools initiated online classes for the primary and pre-primary school students and it was tragic and funny that the mother with the child in her lap and mobile in her hand remains helping her child to get educated by the so called apt, dedicated and devoted schools. This was the height of the abuse of the technology. Was it so necessary for a small child to be on screen and that too the screen which cannot be controlled? Such schools were more disastrous than the corona to infect the parents and thus infect the children permanently. Indeed, education is necessary but home is the first school and mother is the first teacher. Apart of the formal lessons, the most important lessons of etiquettes, sharing and caring could have been taught by the parents rather than giving them the online lessons which may be a disaster for the kids cannot discriminate between the good and bad shared by the internet and even the internet fails to differentiate the age and maturity of the users.

Simultaneously, the education boards started the assessment of the papers and the teachers were forced to come to assess the papers. Ofcourse, it was necessary. But when the terror of corona was rising, the facilities were few, social distancing was a problem and above all the mindset was not favourable, at this point of time, the evaluation or the assessment of the exam papers were questionable and doubtful because the worth of any work done out of compulsion and imposition is doubtful and these papers to be evaluated were the one to decide the future of the potential students, state and the country which cannot be taken casually. Nevertheless, with the fear of each individual being infected, at this time, it was difficult to assure that the terrorized mind which hardly allowed to accept the call of satisfying the necessities other than the basic necessities would allow the body and mind to be ready enough to assess the papers normally and neutrally. In the situation, when the opening of the schools and colleges were uncertain; risking many lives, the papers were assessed to declare the results timely but output remains questionable and doubtful. The declaration of results on time doesn’t mean development, for the real development lies in the character formation of students.

Again, education is must and the use of technology as online teaching maybe temporarily fine but it is the fact that no technology can replace the classroom teaching because classroom deals with emotions, feelings and pacification of the called and uncalled, said and unsaid doubts of students which can be pacified only in presence. The webinars maybe welcome but it missed the opportunity to develop intimacy and have the company of the acknowledged persons face to face and the online classes missed the emotions. Although the economic rise of any institute was must but the unending and tiring humiliating vague meetings to ponder on the idea of COVID 19 as an opportunity was unworthy and more an imprisonment. Such an action of the authorities depicted their missing national character, education and humanity. Teachers add fragrance to the student’s life by nourishing and nurturing them. Thus, teachers need to be strong to protest against the wrongs whether against themselves, to the students, society or the country for they are the backbone of the society and if backbone is weak the progress of the society is certainly impossible. Education needs to be strengthened with more values for society, humanity and developing national character among each individual because life is to add life to the life and ultimately life is for life.

FEAR: TRAUMITISING THE HUMAN MIND

Avdhesh Jha

In this era of science and technology, media is the backbone of the society. Media is a source of guide and information. And thus, it has the responsibility to validate the news before sharing. Because of the popular social sites keeping the people busy to share the information, today most of the people have turned a media man but hardly have any sense of duty and responsibility. The competition amongst the newsmongers to be the first one to share the news and picture created a chaos as the messages were mis-represented and mis-interpreted. These newsmongers created a chaos by sharing the news without any facts and validation which created misfodemic. Misfodemic here means misinformation epidemic. The reporting and repetition of the same news created a terror and trauma amongst the people who kept updating themselves with the virus and its impact on the society. These were the one to consider everyone suffering from corona and looked upon them with hatred. A little irresponsible behaviour by the newsmongers of the social sites and some media created several problems to the innocent people from the community. Not restricting the misfodemic to the community, it created competition among the rulers and ministers to use the social sites and news channels to post themselves as the first one to take steps. It was pity politicians took this tragic event as opportunity of popularity. Social sites were the one to add to the misfodemic which further added to the mis-interpretations and forced people to take the steps which were strongly prohibited. The pandemic thus presented a huge virus infecting the people at large with distrust and thus promoting the uncurable misfodemic at the cost of trust merely for small and temporal gains against humanity.

Pros and cons of pandemic: The pandemic questioned the medical and psychosomane (psychological, social and humane) readiness of the countries to face such a situation. It threatened and challenged the developed countries boasting about GDP with the best infrastructure, instructional facilities, human resources, industrial development and technology that were hardly able to cope up with this pandemic. It prompted the countries to assess their health and medical facilities and its related infrastructure. With COVID 19 were posited several restrictions as a precautionary step. Whereas some self-locked themselves, others were forced by the system to lock down and follow the lock out. Indeed, this imposition was a terror for the people. Several were panicked with lock down whereas some behaved wise. Unfortunately, people took a long time to understand why system forced the closure of schools and colleges for students. Although this step was not well understood by the managers but it created new opportunities for many which initiated the application of technology to education. With several threats as such ability to bear the stress of lock down and its control; the stress of the meetings about the economic betterment of the organisation; the unending debate about the effectiveness of the online or virtual classes; expectation of the authorities from the teachers to prepare the case study, research papers and innovative lessons etc.; poor mental health of teachers, employees and people with different SES; miscommunication; stress of fake news on popular social sites; politicisation of the news, creating differences and polarisation of society; the trauma of the daily wage workers and its possible causes and outcome; the mindset of the people towards other fellow beings; stress of being human to anyone coughing and sneezing; the stress of ability of being human at the idea of risking life; the stress of the idea of our development with respect to our own health etc. posited a lot to the society and its balance turning it more unbalanced. Such an unbalance urges for rethinking about the luxury, leisure, high GDP, technological development and best infrastructure as indicators of development. It further seeks clarification if even the developed countries have the capability to safeguard its human health and societal health to this pandemic.

For most of the employee - the backbone of the organisation; the debate about the organisational heads caring for their organisational economic well-being vs. those caring their employees’ health arose. The terror of reporting twice by the employees even in teaching field along with the proof of work done was a horrifying state. The debate about fake news, the social sites abuse, politicisation of news, self-publicity at the cost of corona terror, cheap and mean politics, declining humanity were very common but just remained unanswered. Such situation asks the society to assess if humanity prevails as well if economy is the only need for human development? It also questions the physical, social, mental, emotional, aesthetical or spiritual health of the societal members and asks to check the same when we are self-locked. With increasing terror and trauma of the situation even though humanity without fear of economic consequences was emphasized, its pity that the societal institutions were busy following their protocols selfishly, some of which affected and impacted the name and fame of country badly. Whereas the situation was an alarming bell about poor medical infrastructure and facilities and lack of preparedness of the countries towards this situation this pandemic proved that technology (although not preferred by most) can also be an option to education.

Most of the countries have their own history of freedom. Yet we have failed to understand the importance of freedom and so still we are not free. We are the slaves of prevailing inequality, differences of color, race, religion, gender, power, capitalism, technological development etc. Each minute some powerful is killing the humanity and so we are still not free. The tiny corona challenging the mankind has proven its might now and all the mankind is suffering. The race of proving the worth with materialistic development initiated by some ignorant is now the race of the world because of insecurity amongst the others.

Any country is the land of people of passionate love, and faith. Today technological advancement is not a major issue for any country rather expansion and its reach to all, is important. Rather than Bullet Train Project the humanitarian projects are important. Rather than the investment in high speed train the countries need the investment for loving and caring heart and brain. The issues for upliftment of declining humanity, life and its safety are important. The small corona posited a lot threat and shackled the world and all its aspect. It questioned the developing countries and the mankind about its so-called development and challenged the readiness of the world for any such sudden event and cause. Infact it has awakened the world. It rests up to us, how we take it. The attraction and run for creation of tallest statues as wonders of world are just becoming a tourist sight and will remain meaningless with pictures in the mobile phones. The need is valuing the value. The nations can just boast of its development on the basis of its economy and GDP but for the fact this doesn’t indicate the real development. The development lies not in giving the concept of Global village but lies in turning this concept practical and real. It should not remain a concept to study but be converted to real situation to feel and enjoy. All we need to do is to manufacture humanity, to produce and consume humanity, develop equality. To reach Mars is not tough but to add and prevail humanity and be prepared for any such situation is real development.

The furious and grave COVID-19 pandemic may look to be a serious matter as of now but along with it has entered more furious, more grave and most dangerous virus of misinformation which spreads without any control across the globe within no time and impacts the world negatively misleading each one with the differences that creates distrust towards each other and turns each of them more selfish, lonely and inhuman. Like the corona epidemic termed as pandemic; the fastest spread of misinformation, maybe termed as the misfodemic turned most dreary and scary. Unaware of the facts and its cure, the people kept loitering with the false information being surrounded with its spread and reach troubling themselves with nothing, for nothing. The power of social sites, science and technology was much required here to let truth prevail and the fake or the false to perish. Whether physical, social, mental, aesthetical, economical or spiritual health of the human, this misfodemic with its ease of reach and access to all human, endangered each type of human health and harmed it badly creating distrust all around and thus infected the society. Thrilled falsehoods full of wild conspiracy towards a caste, community, society, state, nation and other countries are the waves that fill in the air to damage the mind and thought process of all those inhaling it whether knowingly or unknowingly. Media and people say it’s the videos that getting viral but for the fact it’s the spurring abundant envy, jealousy and hatred spreading and getting viral and infecting the people mentally with such a strong impact as to infect several generations. This is the time science should be awakened strongly, technology supported social sites should spur with dissemination of facts infecting the human with lessons of love and humanity, and most importantly the developer of the viruses of the differences be punished without any mercy whether a human or a politician!

The pandemic impacted the human mind severely. Although the related decisions were late but there is no denial that the decisions were taken in good faith. But the decisions proved to be vague and fatal for lacs of people causing huge irreparable loss of lives and contamination of human mind. For sure, this pandemic will end soon but the consequences might be very harsh and tough. Even after the end of this pandemic, for a long time, it would be difficult for the parents to send their ward to school. There are chances that many of them will change their idea of lavishness and will restrict their needs. It may lead to abhorring the brands, less outing, less show off which may affect the economy badly. Socialism may also be affected and impacted and people may choose to limit themselves only to a few by restricting the size of family, relatives and friends. Although human has the benefit of boon of forgetfulness but till the individuals forget it will take not less than a year to turn the things normal and socialism is such which once affected is likely to create the walls permanently. Precautions were must but precautionary measures should have been strong enough to prevent the attack on the livelihood of the hard-working people because they are the equal member of society and their progress or regress equally affects the society. The related strong messages of imposed control, measures and prevention must have been delivered softly and smoothly with caution, assurance and fulfillment of basic needs. Necessary care and precaution turns must to prevent infecting the innocent. Sooner or later, the vaccine for this virus will exist and maybe one or two doses of this vaccine will develop the stamina to resist the disease but the virus of distrust created by the misfodemic cannot be healed, cured or vaccinated by any medicine. The only way is preserving the trust, developing the trust and transmitting the trust for one and all irrespective of the political, economic, individual selfish gains whether for power or position of an individual or the country. This trust should exist within and between the individual, communities, states and countries. It’s only this trust that can add to humanity and turn world a true global village. With a hope that trust prevails and humanity hails, I am sure each home will be quarantined with COVID 19 but I hope and wait for the world where each home and mind are quarantined with the fastest spreading misfodemic that creates differences amongst the human and endangers the existence of humanity on this beautiful paradise.

Whether the tiny corona or the fear of lack of preparedness of the developed countries, their arrogance, casual undermining of the situation and their selfish motto created the trauma remains to be checked. With a hope of best for the mankind, appreciating and paying tribute to all those who have supported this fight against corona directly or indirectly, I am sure this article will enlighten us with the real idea of development which starts with the health whether physical, social, mental, emotional, aesthetical or spiritual and ends with humanity.