Coronavirus Part 45, Rise and rise of Heroes, Improving Framework

 

              The covid-19 in the country is dormant for a while. The 7 day moving average of cases lies at 29 thousand. This saw a very slight reduction of one thousand over the previous week. As mentioned earlier, the count of cases are hovering up and down this narrow channel since some time. The curve is flattened since almost three months and this gives a good chance to ramp it down. The active cases in the country stand at 3 lakhs and reducing by nearly 40 thousand each week since last 2 weeks. It is surprisingly overwhelming to note Kerala is contributing more than 60% to the tally over the past few months with regards to number of daily infections and holds more than 50% of active cases. One can find it hard in how to read this imbalance in the spread of the pandemic. ‘Why me’ asks this southern state and everyone else who tries to understand the nature of the pandemic. Except 4 states, the pandemic is more or less subtle in rest of the country. The focus should be on these 4 states to make a gradual change in bringing down the numbers.

             After a quick snapshot of the covid-19 situation in the country, let us look at the vaccination the country. A total of 85 crore doses are provided till date and need the same count in the next three months. The 7 day average is around 80 lakhs which is helped by vaccination drives all over the country. These coordinated drives, cowin platform and the administration deserves huge applause for turning out to be a model in inoculating the billion eligible population. An impressive feat occurred on the birthday of PM when all the states stepped up the accelerator by 3 times and logged more than 2.5 crore jabs on a single day. The length and breadth of the nation in unison swayed to a common cause on the birthday of benefactor-in-chief of vaccination drives. Thousands of sites inoculating the public worked long hours in co-ordination with supply chain and turned out people to register a huge surge. This is required in the coming few months to defeat the pandemic.

              There is always scope for improvement in any work and the same can be said in this case. Despite a commendable job, there is a significant supply-demand mismatch or the demand isn’t met enough. One simple fact to put across is - one in three in the country didn’t even get first jab till date. Most of the countries did a good job according to the population they have. Relatively, India performs average as it provides just 60 doses per 100 people. UAE tops the list with 197 doses per 100 people. Much better in comparison, China gave 151 doses per 100 people, way higher than India. Likewise, there are countries with size and population doing better than India.

               Let me take this aspect of vaccination and tell you what is wrong with our country. Our size and population warrants much better framework, architecture to automatically meet the huge demand without escalating manual efforts, heroic actions and singular attributions. We need to work smarter, make less noise, be more effective, efficient. This is not just in vaccination but in most other rankings as well where India occupies a below median position among the list of countries. Despite casting a brighter light on work done, our work never meets the output required. This is what happens when the output of the work in the framework depends on work of an individual, by an individual and for an individual.

              Why not provide 2 crore jabs and cover 200 doses to 100 people by now, instead of working ‘for’ a person on his birthday, in the work ‘of’ a person, driven ‘by’ a person. Moreover, the glorification does no good to the cause, the people or the person. When you glorify a meagre work, you don’t improve; failing the people and putting the onus, importance on a single person. As I mentioned earlier as well, you need to curtail the epic personification, larger-than-life depiction of an individual over the nation. The individual should be replaced with collective conscience. It should be enshrined in the preamble that the fortune of the nation is enhanced through the work which is done- by the people, of the people and for the people.

              Here the people represent the collective mass and no individual is bigger than this whole entity. The people are answerable to the people and people are questionable to the people. Individual aggrandizement does not fit in the collective upliftment of the country. When it does, you are concentrating on the former and not on the latter. As the nation evolves, there is a need for robust framework to cater to the needs of growing populace without putting the onus on an individual. For an instance, how can a single person be allowed to demonetise 15 lakh crore rupees worth of currency even if it is for an extremely good cause. How can a single person be allowed to declare a lockdown by himself which has contracted the GDP of nation by 24% even if it is for good cause.

              Why does the nation fails to understand the enormity of actions put forth by few in power. Why does the nation allows unrestrained exercise of powers in all fronts by any magnitude. Why the nation hinges on the gigantic scale of feats performed by a single person. Right from independence, not more than a few handful of individuals have decided the fate of the nation. Coming back to the gigantic exercise of vaccination, a single person can be called the face of this program, appreciate him to the sky, celebrate his birthday and look up to him with mouth wide open for any instruction. Does this model solve the problem to the fullest extent in lowest possible time? Answer is a big No. The enormous work and supply from few men will never meet the demand of entire country. This is also the reason why we are languishing where we are in most of the comparisons with other countries.

              We cannot live in a state of denial that we are not working while the real work is being done by very few individuals. We cannot be reduced to dummies while a select few suffers and reigns supreme. We have to grab the infinite power of select few and make our self accountable. We have to curtail the ever growing Himalayan stature of select few since the modus operandi is impossible to continue by the next person who takes the baton. While we think about rationalising the operating environment of those in power, let us be fearful of the current disposition, heights of adventures, lengths of distance travelled and say in 3 simple words of the present government, PM – Great, Greater, Greatest. Period.