writwe an essay on the role bof citizens in the time of the crorona pandemic rises
Answers
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown us something that most of us haven’t seen in our lifetimes: Large numbers of people unable to have two meals a day.
The tragedy is that the government has enough and more foodgrains to feed people during this time; the real issue is of distribution—both in terms of broken supply chains, as well as the insistence of the government to limit distribution to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), ie, priority ration card holders. This approach is flawed because the NFSA has many exclusions, with some of the poorest of the poor, nomadic or Adivasi communities, and the urban poor being left out. Moreover, ration cards are of no use to migrant workers stuck outside their home state.
There are similar issues of exclusion in other services as well, such as livelihoods and healthcare. This is where civil society must step in—to put pressure on the government to universalise these services.
We, at the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and through many networks, have been petitioning the government to distribute foodgrains to everyone, and we need to apply this kind of pressure at a larger scale. We’ve seen this work in the past, in the case of programmes such as NFSA (that focuses on food security) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)—both these were a result of consultative processes between the government and civil society. In fact, these rights-based legislations are providing us with the framework for public service delivery during this crisis, and they need to be effectively enhanced.
Answer:
As the death toll from the novel coronavirus rises, we are brutally faced with the reality that public policy directly affects the number of Americans and Montanans who are victimized by this modern plague. And also by the reality that, because of its nature, public policy is not always driven by cold, hard facts, science and evidence, but is at least partially driven by politics. In some ways that is bad, but in other ways it is good and necessary.
This is a time when people are called upon to join the communal effort to “flatten the curve” of medical destruction and death, to help move us toward a more controlled medical situation in the face of having no “cure” for the silent viral enemy. Medical and public health leaders have been sounding the alarm bells and flashing red lights about the dangers of a pandemic since the Ebola crisis in 2014. Yet we are now coming to the realization that the United States has, at best, had a flat-footed response to the challenge, a response that is now leading to exponentially-rising numbers of both cases and deaths.
Writing this as I sit at home, cloistered off because at age 75 I am in such a high-risk category, I know I will be chastised for failure to fully and completely stand behind the actions of our federal leadership. I suspect I will be accused of betraying our country because we should all be “pulling together.” But in the 50 years I have been deeply involved in public policy I have learned that the duties of citizenship are steeped in the need for active engagement, not passivity — voicing our concerns rather than sitting in silence.
We as citizens have the right, even the responsibility, to demand that the leadership we have chosen rises to the task in front of us. In fact, that is almost a citizen’s duty in a democracy. We have the right to demand that our elected leaders be in front of the curve, not put us all behind the curve, especially when missing that curve means death for thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens. We have a right to demand that our elected leaders take advantage of the expertise we have developed in government with our tax dollars, rather than decrying that expertise as a “deep state” product with some conspiratorial agenda.
Political people shout “accountability” from the rooftops when it comes to the actions of individual citizens, especially those at the lower economic levels. Yet, those same political folk do not want the “accountability” lens focused on them. They suggest we should blindly fall in line behind a president or governor during times of crisis. But responsible citizenship calls upon us to not meekly line up behind bad direction in a crisis, but to insist upon fact-based decision-making that leads us in the right direction.
We citizens are not rats following a pied piper to the sea nor lemmings marching to the sea. We are citizens with a responsibility that goes beyond the ballot box to demanding performance (and accountability) from those we elect.
In saying that, our critical eye should not be blindly partisan. It needs to be shaped by values and the common good, by the facts of our situation. It needs to be based on rational thought and analysis not virulent political rhetoric or tribal thinking.
Criticism of the initial direction of our president has helped begin to bend the curve toward better public policy. If we are finally moving away from denial, delay and deflection as our direction, it is because citizens have been willing to criticize the bad direction. That is the way a democracy is supposed to work.
As citizens we are called upon to make shared sacrifices based upon the reality of our medical situation. Maintaining “social distance” — for some “social isolation” — is contrary to our active nature, yet it is necessary to keep the coronavirus crisis curve low. Do your part by practicing social distancing and other needed actions. And also, as citizens, contribute to the better good by critical thinking and active voicing of your concerns.
The country needs your thoughtful voice.
Evan Barrett of Butte retired after 47 years in economic development, government, politics and education. He produces Montana history videos and occasionally teaches history..