Amartya Sen, Chomsky, Swaminathan praise Kerala for the way it has handled COVID-19

Praising Kerala for way it has handled coronavirus surge, bel-laureate and ecomist Amartya Sen said on Friday COVID-19 would be a transformatory movement in State and it has dealt with pandemic combating bureaucracy and red tape. Sen was speaking during a webinar on development titled 'Kerala Dialogue', organised by Kerala government to bring toger thinkers, policy-makers, professionals, scientists and public to where y could rethink and reimagine development for a world disrupted by pandemic.

Sen came down heavily on "unplanned and unstructured lockdown" in India and said it caused distress and hardship. "I think Covid would be a transformative movement in Kerala. re is a danger of being deluged under rar deceptive ecomic slogan that is so dominant in India today and re is widespre resistance to that. But it also suggests that combating bureaucracy, combating red tape, and doing things with exceeding speed, which indeed is what Kerala seems to have done in dealing with Covid," Sen said.

Well-kwn philosopher and social critic, am Chomsky, who also participated in talk, said way Kerala responded to Covid-19 pestilence was a surprise to whole world. " differences in way between Kerala and rest of India, and rest of most of world, on how y reacted to crisis was quite startling. t many places have dealt with it way Kerala has. This pandemic has brought out very sharply extraordinary inequality that has been, of course always re, but greatly exaggerated through neo-liberal period," Chomsky said. Asked if re will be a fundamental change in world at end of pandemic, Chomsky claimed countries like US are trying to continue current situation and move to more dictatorships, restrictions and people-watching. "But re are movements all over world to counter this. Coordinating this can be a huge force. y can make changes and y are all trying to create a new world," Chomsky said.

Sen appreciated public healthcare system and high level of literacy in State. " unplanned and unstructured lockdown in India caused distress and hardship. government should have discussed matter with civil society. However, government implemented lockdown in an authoritarian manner.It was a disaster for daily w labourers," Sen said.

Sen also pointed out that collapse of public system, which has happened in Europe, has t happened in Kerala. "Though Europe h a trition of public sector intervention it is t re w but that kind of reliance on public sector can still be seen in Kerala," he ded. WHO Chief Scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan said countries, which responded to early warning issued by World Health Organization, were better prepared to face pandemic. "On January 30, WHO issued an emergency alert for global Covid-19 defence.

But Kerala h alrey started preventive measures in early January, anticipating potential problems. That is why first cases from Wuhan could be discovered. Following this, Kerala was able to locate, quarantine those who h contact with m and contain outbreak. Kerala has been able to contain disease as fast as possible due to proper preventive measures," Swaminathan said.

Chomsky said Vietnam has confronted this pestilence and t a single Covid related death was reported re. He also pointed out that South Korea has also effectively controlled pandemic without even a lockdown. "Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand are or countries that dealt with disease. In Europe, Germany was able to prevent spre of disease in a good way.What saved m was that Germany did t opt a commercial hospital system like US," he said.

Chomsky said it was Doctors from "poor Cuba, who have been victims of US ecomic assault for more than six deces", who moved to Italy to help m out. "This pandemic was able to show extraordinary inequality of world. In United States, it was most prounced....Blacks and ir descendants from Spain and South America suffered most in United States," he claimed. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who also participated in discussion, said Kerala was starting a new conversation on development. " Left Front is launching Keralialogue to bring new concepts and sustainable development models," Vijayan said.