As the Chief Secretary of your state, write an article on 'Life after Covid'-- discussing the role of the government, the expectations of and from the citizens; the changes in living and working style all will need to adopt post this crisis.
Answers
Answer:
Well, before we talk of life after COVID-19, there is urgent need to talk about life after the lockdown. It is difficult to imagine that anyone of us can return to what was the old normal. Shops and offices will slowly limp back putting up a brave front and expending all their energy to ensure that they survive somehow. The government has yet to share a blueprint for revival and recovery of the stricken economy. Reassuring noises have failed to comfort the most distressed segment of the population—the daily wage earners and those employed in the unorganised sector, landless farmers and millions of migrants rendered refugees, helpless and ‘stateless’ overnight.
There is no clarity how the fragile supply chains will be maintained, restored and repaired in the absence of those who hew wood and fetch water to make the cities buzz. Will they return? Or, will hunger and unbearable discrimination drive the stigmatised poor back into a life of bondage in overcrowded cities? How will ‘social distancing’ unravel once school, colleges, universities, offices and factories restart—not with 50 per cent staff but in full steam? Transport will remain a major challenge. When will trains and interstate buses resume regular services? It’s great that some arrangements have been made by some governments to bring the migrant workers and students back home.
But, logically, all such persons will have to be put in quarantine. It appears that even if there is gradual relaxation in lockdown, the unfortunate interruption will last more than three months after the lockdown is lifted. Neither the central government, nor the state governments can be faulted for this. Minor and major glitches apart, they have done the best under the exceptional circumstances.