Published 14:15 IST, May 23rd 2020
14,000 km, 8 states: Pradeep Bhandari's ground report on India's fight against COVID-19
In 38 days, Bhandari travelled to eight states covering the Hindi Heartland including UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttarakhand.
With more than one lakh positive cases of coronavirus, India is ramping up its fight against the pandemic. In the wake of the outbreak, India announced a lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 and for more than two months now, people of the country have been confined to their homes. "Stay where you are," appealed PM Modi in his address while announcing the first lockdown. However, India's challenges are far greater with a population of 135 crores.
Jan ki Baat Founder Pradeep Bhandari travelled to the remote parts of the country and brought a ground report on the ongoing crisis. Starting from Delhi, Bhandari, along with his team, travelled to Uttar Pradesh where they explored the condition of some of the remotest villages. In 38 days, the team travelled to eight states in the Hindi Heartland including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttarakhand.
Speaking to Republic World, Bhandari said the main objective of the journey was to not only reflect the voices of people who are suffering but to also provide them help and alleviate their suffering as much as possible. The month-long journey, which was also broadcasted on Republic TV's Rashtrahit Ki Baat, was intended to give voice to people in need of help.
“At that time, there was no first impression of the people who were suffering. Our main objective was to do something that is not just a newsy reportage but to present the voices of people from their point of view. We went to several villages to understand whether India is winning the war or not. It is extremely important to know what people are thinking amid unprecedented times. At the same time it is important to know if they have hope or not. We were reflecting their voices but at the same time, we were trying to help them by connecting them to people. If I came across migrants who were travelling from Haryana to Gorakhpur, I would connect them to relevant authorities through Twitter.”
Most people are in support of lockdown
The Jan Ki Baat Founder said there is a huge support for the lockdown on the ground as people realize that "we are all in this together. It is a war that India has to win and everybody has to contribute." He added more than 80% of people are in support of the lockdown even though some people are suffering but they are not opposing the lockdown as they understand it is the need of the hour.
“All of us are together in it, It is not about a party. It is a war that India has to win. And everybody has to contribute.”
Pradeep Bhandari's team also did Jan Ki Baat survey on a large scale which reveals that even in times of crisis, people of the country have shown resilience. "Even a migrant who was walking 300 kilometres, he was in despair but not in anger. The idea was to alleviate this despair and not to get eyeballs only based on reflecting his anger,” he said.
Indian villages are the biggest strength of the country
The team went deep into the villages to speak to people and understand their point of view. He said that in the village people are trying their best to guard the village against any outsiders and are helping each other amid the crisis. Bhandari said the community living in villages has contributed to the fight in a huge way. It is because of this effort that the death rate in India is low and the recovery rate has considerably improved, he said.
"The Indian villages are the biggest strength point in India. When you go to a village, you realize everybody was doing their bit. Whether the sarpanch who is ensuring proper sanitization. People were guarding their village against outsiders; farmers who had enough produce were giving those who did not have enough. The community living of the village has made it possible for India to do substantially well in this war against COVID. Every second person was keeping their face covered."
"It was not just a govt-led effort but a people-led effort to defeat COVID. Everybody was together in it. There is suffering but still the intention was to be one and defeat it.”
Bhandari recalled meeting a cleaner in Mathura who was still coming to sanitize the ghat every day despite not having received her salary for a month. "That is the beauty of the country that in times of crisis common people rise up to ensure the country is able to defeat the invisible enemy," he added.
Further, during his journey, Bhandari recalled meeting a group of migrants in Roorkee who were travelling from Ludhiana to Gorakhpur. The migrants had lost their way and were misguided thinking that the road led to eastern UP. Bhandari said he coordinated with concerned authorities to ensure they reach their destination. "This is how our journey was different from others and this is how we can contribute to help those who are most affected by the crisis," he said.
Migrants are in despair, not anger
Speaking about the condition of migrants Bhandari said they are certainly in despair but not in anger. He said the survey reveals they are in support of the lockdown as they understand it is important in the fight against the pandemic.
“The lockdown was the need of the hour. I didn’t meet even one migrant who said lockdown shouldn’t have happened."
He also added that on the ground, the situation has considerably improved as there are ten times less migrants walking on road ever since the trains started. He added that every day less number of migrants are on roads than before. Now, the Railways Ministry has amended the guidelines and any train can travel from one district to another provided the DM gives in written.
"Nobody wants to voluntarily leave their hometown but majority of migration happened from UP, Bihar and parts of Bengal because these people did not have means to sustain their families. Now when work has stopped, their families are away, and at places, district administration is not able to provide food. And they know the COVID virus is not stopping and industries are not opening anytime soon, so they travel back."
Could the Centre handle the migrant crisis better before announcing the lockdown?
Speaking about the ongoing migrant crisis and whether the situation could have been handled in a better way before the lockdown was announced, Bhandari said when the lockdown was announced everyone was in the state of unknown. He added that no country could tell if they would be able to reopen in two weeks. People are learning on the administrative level as it is a new situation for everyone, said Bhandari.
"Over the past two months, India has built the capability where it is producing a large number of PPE kits and is the third largest in terms of testing. Things were different two months back. If you had ferried these migrants and if they got coronavirus, the country did not have enough testing capacity or PPE kits or beds back then. In fact, the data shows that all the districts, which were green before lockdown 4.0, have started to receive cases as migrants began to travel back."
He added that many of the migrants have coronavirus and it would have been difficult to handle the situation with 1/10th the resources two months back. "It would have lead to catastrophe," he said adding that the country has done "substantially better apart from one or two glitches."
New challenges for state governments as migrants reach home
Bhandari said that most of these people who have returned home will not come back soon, not before September at least. This poses a challenge for the state government as well as provides an opportunity to build a labour-intensive industry. He added that these two months in all the home states will be extremely critical. The states need to give them direct benefits and collect the database of migrant workers.
“It gives these states an opportunity to build their own economic engenies as they have the manpower and resources now. They can now utilize them to build labour-intensive industry. On the other hand, it also poses a huge challenge that if you do not engage these people in economic work for some time, they might turn repulsive and angry.”
Report from villages: More support for lockdown but less social distancing
“The support for the lockdown is more in the villages than what you see in big cities," Bhandari said adding that the support "may not remain in coming days" as people are beginning to realize that lockdown is a temporary measure. He revealed that even in a village if people were sitting at their home earlier, after 10 days the "farmers have started going to their farmland wearing a gamcha or mask.”
"In villages, less social distancing is followed because the general understanding of people is that they have not got any outsiders and they have not travelled outside, they think COVID will not hit them. I have not seen social-distancing being followed well in the villages but necessary steps are being taken to not allow outsiders. Even a vegetable seller from outside is not allowed and they try to locally-source the vegetables. They contained and stopped all the possible sources of coronavirus spread and even the migrants are being qurantined in a separate school. But hygiene is being maintained“
Migrants need urgent attention
The ground report reveals that if there is one thing that needs urgent attention and help that is the migrant crisis, Bhandari said. He added that it is not only about ferrying people back to home but also about engaging them in economic activities once they reach. "The migrants as they reach back to hometown need urgent attention. State governments should provide food, the database should be collected and after quarantine, they should be engaged in economic activities," he said.
"All the migrants on the road should be ferried to their hometown", Bhandari said. He added that the situation has considerably improved ever since Shramik Trains started. "More than one lakh people are taken back through these trains but still there are migrants who are on the highway."
The state governments should ferry buses for these migrants as roadways are under the state government, he said. He added that even now the state governments are helping the migrants but "the administrative procedures take precedent over compassion".
"In a situation which is unprecedented, sometimes you have to give away with the procedures and ensure that the help reaches at the right time. The delay on part of state governments is because of excessively following the administrative procedures. The only objective at this point should be to ensure no migrant is on the road."
"The centre can be overarching but it cannot play every role that state govt as to play. The centre is doing well as Railway guidelines have also been amended. There re more trains running than before but ferrying the migrants is not the job of the centre but of state.”
Bhandari said that police has been doing a fantastic job amid the crisis and it is with their support that the migrants can further help. "If they can ensure that in their supervision no migrant is walking then you will not see any migrant walking. The DGP should ensure that the SHO knows what procedure is to be followed for the migrants and the SHO should ensure that no migrant is walking near their station and help is provided.”
People are the biggest strength
The Jan Ki Baat founder concluded by saying that for India, its people are its biggest strength. It is because of unity and people's support that the country is doing well in its fight against coronavirus.
“Whenever there has been a crisis in the country, people have always united and taken the challenge. This is the most important thing. This differentiates India from many other countries like in US, people are on roads protesting against lockdown but in India people have always supported what is ethically and morally right, especially in crisis. India’s way of responding to COVID has been unprecedented. ”
(Image credit: Pradeep Bhandari)
Updated 15:02 IST, May 23rd 2020