The world has seen catastrophes in the past, but the one we are dealing with currently has consistently damaging across nations. It has made us rethink whether borders, language, fences, class, race and other forms of differentiators mean anything at all.

The country continues its struggle with the Coronavirus pandemic, as the numbers of positives detected continue to rise with increased testing in the country. Scientists, pharmacists and medical researchers around the world continue their hurried search for a vaccine or a cure. However, the community has met with limited success as of now.

Understanding the economic damage, a nationwide lockdown can cause, leave alone the other psychological impacts, the central and state governments continue to try and normalize operations across the country, opening offices and businesses, bringing the country back to its feet. The metro cities, Mumbai the financial capital and also home to the largest slum of Asia, Delhi the political capital and also one of the most densely populated places in the world, Ahmedabad and Chennai are especially suffering from rapidly rising cases as the governments in these cities try to manage the balancing act of reopening but with caution.

While the focus of many remains on observing the numbers of infections and recovered, which is critical, some predict that the economic damage due to the lockdown and continued restrictions on certain businesses would be more than temporary. Many MSMEs are predicted to not survive the revival, many other businesses are predicted to struggle due to lack of skilled labor as scores of our migrant worker population returned to their native places in search of safety and dignity.

The impacts of the pandemic may not have been completely ascertained, and even after the disease situation comes under control, the government and social organizations will need to continue to work towards rebuilding the general morale of the people as they struggle with economic, psychological and social issues. Caritas India, along with its partners, continues to build focus around these parameters of support which will remain critical in some time to come.

Caritas India is working on the following areas to help support the populace in these difficult times:

 Health and Safety: As the virus is highly infectious and spreads rapidly from one person to another, Caritas India focused on helping to maintain personal hygiene which has repeatedly been advised by multiple institutions and the WHO. Caritas, through its partners, has worked on spreading awareness of how critical and important hand hygiene and cough/sneeze hygiene are. Partners have repeatedly emphasized the importance of frequently washing hands and covering mouth and nose. Caritas India has also distributed hand-washes and sanitizers to communities which may in general not use them, due to paucity of knowledge or financial difficulties. It is the endeavor of the organization and its partners to steadily increase efforts towards health and safety awareness which can in turn help reduce the rate of infection in the communities and also bring in a paradigm shift in how communities view matters of personal hygiene, perhaps increasing general wellness of the population in future.

Food security: As scores of migrants returned to their native places, their savings spent on the journey back, and numerous others who lost their jobs, food security became an increasing concern. While the govt. has steadily increased facilities of food and ration distribution, the efforts have seemingly been inadequate at some places and of improper quality in others. Many social organizations and resident associations worked towards helping by proving food. Caritas India and its partners, from the initial days of the response itself, have been deeply involved in distributing ration, food kits as well as cooked food to several persons in need.

Food security is likely to remain a critical priority as the true economic impact of the pandemic surfaces.

Psycho-social support: India has traditionally seen the attention to mental health has been low in normal scenarios. Coupled with a pandemic and elongated lockdown, while the focus seemed to remain on controlling the disease and the economic impact the lockdown was having, it became more and more evident that the psychological impact that fear of infection and the restrictions of lockdown were having could neither be ignored nor deferred to the future. A large majority of the population, across different age groups and sex, continue to feel the weight. Children not able to go to school or to play, youth uncertain about resumption of education and prospects of jobs, the working class – many having lost their jobs while others constantly living in fear of losing theirs, and the elderly with the complete advised restriction on movement,  all sections of the society have been impacted in varying proportions.

Understanding this continued impact, Caritas India along with its partners has been providing psycho-social support and is constantly adding more volunteers to the team in order to widen its reach.

Way Forward: The way forward strictly can be succinct into two words to Evolve or Perish. With the way we have been battling as a Nation for the last 3 months – over 100 Days and more we are still on the rising curve of being infected. It’s a collective responsibility of all states and its people to prosper and realize the welfare state [1]model. Boycotting or ignoring won’t help the economy or the revival of our own, trust and believe in the potentials of our capacities, willingly promoting them and accepting them is the change we are looking for and needed at this juncture.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state