Where did we go wrong!

Our country is burning, in the literal sense. Our cityscapes are clouded with the smoke from funeral pyres. This apparently is just the beginning of the nightmare. A model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington forecast ONE MILLION deaths in India by the end of July. While Covid and its resultant death toll was a distant reality that we watched aghast on our television screens last year, the angel of death seems to be walking amongst us this year.

So, why are we where we are today? Why is our national capital gasping for oxygen? Why are people fleeing from our metros? Is it because of political apathy? Did our federal and state governments become complacent and declare victory over the virus too early? Should we have hoarded vaccines and medicines for ourselves rather than distribute it internationally? Should we blame our central government for not communicating more clearly? Wait.. isn’t health under the purview of the state government, so should we not blame our state govt? 

Whether it is victory or defeat we are quick to apportion praise or blame. If India wins the cricket world cup, we might even build a temple in the captain’s name. We’ll also burn the same captain’s effigy the next time we lose a match. We are a country of Durvasa Maharishis - easy to please and easy to offend.

So, let’s take a step back and look at the root cause of our problems. Is it really the government? If so, then we are definitely to blame. Was it not Joseph de Maistre who said that ‘Every country has the government it deserves?’ Or is it our cultural and social ecosystem? 

Why were we so confident?  

“It's the rich man's disease!” we said last year. Farmers and daily workers went about their lives as before. However, we were proven wrong. Now, every corner of the country is affected. Was it our quick, initial nationwide lockdown that brought on the rapid recession of the virus in the first wave? Were we basking in misplaced confidence even as we sent vaccines abroad? Business growth in the month of Dec 2020, Jan 2021, Feb 2021, and the highest GST collection in December 2020 were testimony to our having beaten COVID-19. Restaurants bounced back with waiting time for tables. Flights ran full. People were attending parties and weddings. Some were even taking vacations. 

I remember in a few of my meetings with global stakeholders and clients, we discussed how efficiently India managed COVID 19. Definitely worth a case study, we said.

What fuelled all that? Confidence? Ignorance? Lockdown fatigue? 

Is our faith playing against us?

We are a nation of deep-rooted beliefs and passionate faith, whichever our religion. This is perhaps why we can face devastating catastrophes with equanimity. Since most of us believe in the Almighty’s Will and the ultimate good of said Will, we tend to accept anything that comes our way.  “Honi ko kaun taal sakta hai (who can prevent that which has been destined)” has been our go-to balm for grief. This is why the elderly gentleman in my neighboring apartment did not get vaccinated since March 2021. He believes that if he is going to be infected, it will be God's will, and then so be it.  

We need to reverse this culture of acceptance to build a culture of ‘taking responsibility'. As a people we should fight for our rights, whether it's acceptable medical facilities (India’s health spending is just 3.9% of its GDP; well below the recommended 5%) or basic infrastructure. It is our responsibility as responsible citizens of this country to ensure that our elected officials work in our best interest. 

Convoluted truths! 

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. - Charles Spurgeon

Today, everyone around is a WhatsApp-trained doctor.  “Take steam, drink karha twice, put 3 drops of lemon juice in your nose, take vitamin C and Zinc daily, sleep with your right leg raised…” There is no end to such advice!  In fact, those in need of real help often say, “please don’t share forwards and information from forwards”. These cannot be real doctors recording all those messages that we see on social media. With all hospitals overflowing, where would real doctors get the time to record messages? 

To jugaad or not to jugaad?

Another culture that is prevalent in our country is the culture of Jugaad. We’ve all heard stories of the smart “entrepreneur” who sold insurance policies to Mumbai’s train commuters who wished to travel ticketless. This idea of painting street smartness and the slight bending of the law in heroic colors is dangerous. It breeds the culture of each man to his own, which is fine on a normal day but is devastating in catastrophes of this magnitude.  

We as a people need to learn how to work with a common system that has rules. Hoarding oxygen cylinders that you might not need, booking hospital beds for your relatives who are fine at home, is not the same as jumping queues or wiggling your way to the front in a traffic jam. There you might cost someone else a minute of his time, here the cost could be a precious life.

Skill gaps or national gaps?

Skill gaps not only create real business gaps but also national gaps. Our focus is always on making engineers and managers, which is fine but why are we not focusing on improving and uplifting the skills of people who will shape the country? To summarize with an analogy, Coding is an art and so is cutting and shaping an iron bar. The coder will run the ATM, but you do need the ATM to be built first.  

We need skilled people at every level of the nation. It’s as important to have skilled blue-collar workers as white-collar workers. What is the point of making world-class strategies and policies if we do not have skilled resources to implement the strategy! Today,  we are getting oxygen cylinders and concentrators from abroad. Tomorrow we will be in dire need of something else. Why can’t we think ahead and cultivate a nation of individuals who can strategize as well as build what we need? Atma Nirbhar Bharat will occur only when we are skilled enough to become self-reliant.  Skilling should not be limited to the cities of this country but should penetrate our villages.

I think it’s time we did a bit of introspection to figure out if we’ve done our bit.  Many of us consider our duty done once we’ve paid our taxes. “ The rest is the government’s job,”  we say. Did you know that there are just 1.5 crore taxpayers in our 135+ crore-strong population? These are unprecedented times. This is not the time to be playing blame games. This is the time to go above and beyond. 

We need to learn from this bitter experience and turn around our education systems to foster a culture of responsibility and continuous learning. Let’s become scientific in our problem-solving approach while still holding fast to our faith. Let’s make sure that all these lives lost were not in vain. Let’s take collective responsibility.