Do you think, we should participate in large gatherings and pandal hopping during Durga puja. Admidst Corona virus this year? write your views on it by writing 250 and 300 words.
Answers
: For legions of Bengalis spread around the world, Devi Durga is Durgatinashini – the one who ends all suffering. But with only ten days to go for Durga Puja 2020 and India’s COVID-19 epidemic still at a high, experts warn that Bengal could experience an unprecedented public health disaster after the rituals if the strictest crowd-control and minimisation measures are not followed during the festival.
Durga Puja is the most important religious festival on the Bengali calendar, and is expected to happen from October 22 to 26 this year. To the uninitiated: The success of a barowari puja – a public ritual as opposed to a private one intended for a family – is defined by its ability to pull crowds. Lakhs of people descend on the streets on those days, in Kolkata as well as in every district, and move like waves in a vast sea of humanity from one pandal to the next. The number of visitors in the peak hours, generally between 6 pm and 11 pm, goes up to tens of thousands at a single pandal. Even if the attendance this year is 25% of the average, at pandals and on the streets, public health experts say the state could face a catastrophe.
PIN IT
On October 6, the Joint Forum of Doctors sent a strongly worded letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warning against a “tsunami of COVID infections” after Durga Puja. The letter recalled how COVID-19 cases surged in Kerala after its Onam festival in September. Once lauded for its effective response to the epidemic, Kerala recorded the highest number of cases on a single day on October