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Corona Pandemic: The Simmering Crisis


At the time of typing, the casualties due to the novel corona virus pandemic have reached 34,806 with 735,041 infected around the world. The death toll in Italy alone is 10,779, highest anywhere around the globe. It has already claimed 29 lives in India.

In India, Economists say, the pandemic has already done more damage to the Indian economy than Demonetization did in more than three years. In an interview to Karan Thapar, India’s first chief statistician, Dr Pronab Sen when asked about the severity of crises that may follow the spread of the virus, did not rule out the possibility of large scale food riots in the country. If that comes as a surprise, you have just not been paying attention.

Nonetheless, the governments at the centre and in states are well aware of the destitute conditions more than 400 million of Indians live under. PM Modi may well share the apprehensions Dr Sen expressed in his interview. In what may seem to be adequate to some, the Prime Minister in addition to Chief Ministers across states has announced provisions to tackle the situation.

The country witnessed migrant workers on the borders of big cities desperate to reach homes as if announcing the trust deficit in the governments. CM Yogi, CM Nitish and CM Kejriwal, all appealed to them to stay but to no avail. The poor don’t trust the government, it was evident. Television media broadcast around the situation on March 28 was good but short-lived. The stories of workers walking hundreds of miles vanished without any closure. What happened to them all?

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