Governance, science and truth beacons in the fight against Covid-19

Industrialist and philanthropist Azim Hashim Premji rightly outlined a few key issues in managing the Covid-19 pandemic that continues to ravage Indian hinterlands in its second wave.

Truth and science should drive the united national response against the spread of this deadly virus is the prescription offered by Wipro founder who spoke at talk series ‘Positivity Unlimited’ hosted by Covid Response Team, a multi-stakeholder initiative, coordinated by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Premji articulated passionately about dealing with the adverse impact of Covid-19 on most vulnerable sections while seeking socio-economic restructuring in the medium term.

This should be preceded by the government widening and deepening the responses with speed to contain the virus and limit its impact on the poorest people as the virus goes virulently rural, Azim Premji said.

These are the very tenets on which the Modi government based its responses to manage and contain the virus. Scientific advice, truthful and objective assessment on the ground and clean reform-oriented governance has allowed the Modi government to continue on its unblemished track record.

Minimising loss of lives, reducing the socio-economic distress and turning the Covid-19 challenge into an opportunity to bolster India’s healthcare infrastructure especially in rural India have reportedly been the guiding principles for the Modi team.

There could be naysayers to this objective dissection of Covid-19 management till now. They may like to believe so, but the reality is starkly different.

Liquidity push

For example, RBI’s decision in the first week of May to open Rs 50,000 crore liquidity window to ramp up medical and hospital infrastructure in 718 districts to supplement the government’s Covid-19 responses in rural India is very significant. Given the discourse on a possible third wave and the virus reaching our villages seem to have been factored while opening the purse strings through low-cost credit.

Vaccine manufacturers, their importers and exporters, priority medical devices producers, hospitals and dispensaries, pathology labs, producers and suppliers of oxygen cylinders, concentrators, ventilators have been allowed to access the liquid funds for the next one year from this window. This will allow quick expansion of hospitals and critical healthcare facilities in rural and semi-urban districts in particular.

Small and micro-businesses apart from small-ticket individual borrowers especially in rural India have been allowed to tide over the Covid-19 related stress and restructure their loans by using the liquidity window. Yet another Rs 10,000 crore was set aside to support small payment banks that help the micro-borrowers and street vendors that are hit hardest in the second wave.

The second biggest weapon deployed deftly by the Modi government was the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) of funds into farmers’ accounts. On May 14, Prime Minister Modi transferred from Kisan Samman Nidhi over Rs 19,000 crore as part of income support that benefited 9.5 crore farmers. This was the sixth instalment paid out.

Through PM Kisan, over Rs 1.15 lakh crore has been transferred to farmers with less than two hectares of land to boost their income.

During Covid-19 ridden 2020-21, another Rs 49, 965 crore was credited to the bank accounts of rural farmers as part of record wheat procurements of 33.89 million tonnes. A large chunk of these payments have directly gone into farmers bank accounts in Punjab and Haryana for the first time ever. Over 3.41 million farmers have directly benefited from banks’ transfers that hitherto were dependent majorly on ‘arthiyas’ or middlemen.

The migrant crisis

The pandemic’s devastating impact on labour especially the migrant workers is what most analysts talked about periodically with loss in daily wages due to lockdowns or restrictions imposed in the last two months across 22 states.

But then, not many would concede that free food grains i.e. five kilos of wheat and rice arranged by the Modi government made things easier for the migrant labourers in the last year.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 92.88 million tonnes of rice, wheat and pulses were distributed, thanks to deep harvesting of technology in this sector dubiously famous for rampant corruption in the past.

‘One nation – one ration card’, which was introduced last year, allowed beneficiaries to collect their monthly quota of foodgrains from wherever they were located.

This portability in food grains withdrawal was scoffed at by the opposition leaders as Modi government’s attempt at ‘grand standing’ to sidestep the reality. But then, if 26.3 crore portability transactions have been registered across 34 states and union territories in a short span of time what does that denote?

It clearly reflects that those below the poverty line benefitted from the move. If a trend analysis was to be plotted, these transactions are on the rise allowing for portability benefits that Modi antagonists have closed their eyes to.

A recent Union cabinet decision to continue the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana into its third phase this month and June 2021 would allow millions of farmworkers access to food in far-flung areas.

Rejigging governance scientifically and truthfully, providing financial help apart from supporting rural communities in their fight against Covid-19 is imperative.

Even to keep the economy on even keel and ensure an orderly revival, there’s no escape from giving a rural push to generate enough workdays. Let’s not forget that apart from keeping the agricultural output and exports on a healthy growth curve, 389.37 crore person-days employment were generated in the last fiscal.

Covid-19 making rural inroads only reinforces that the government’s strategy of going rural will have to be continued with reinforcement and vigour.

(The writer is a senior research fellow at Centre for Integrated & Holistic Studies, a Gurugram-based think tank. Views expressed are personal)