“Disruptive events sometimes prove to be wormholes for the journey from innovation to adoption.”
Many Twitter handles with blue ticks have always been rambling instead of having a fait accompli with the Union government ever since the outbreak. Many contrarian voices made a mockery of the 21-day national lockdown in exchange with the exodus of thousands of labourers across the country.
Post lockdown period, it was for Sundays that every nook and corner of the erstwhile ‘busy’ India would eagerly wait to adjourn their work to get hold of Prime Minister’s Mann Ki Baat. The Prime Minister, moreover, handled the crisis conveniently by reviving a sense of confidence among the populace within the shaken walls of the city. He pointed out the discrimination faced by health workers who all are leaving behind everything to save our lives. A word from an impeccable orator does act as a relief, but many were counting over the importance of food, job, and shelter for the poor. Needless to say, some kind Samaritans were taking care of them.
A team at IIT-Bombay and professional and experienced members among the alumni recently developed an app for mobiles called ‘Corontine,’ which would help the authorities keep track of potential or suspected asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 if they were to leave their quarantine zone.
One thousand buses were allotted by the UP government to fix the jolt made by the fleeing labourers from ‘jhuggi clusters’ across Delhi. Free food from Gurudwara and welfare scheme by the incumbent AAP government has been doing its rounds in the Delhi circle, mostly aimed for the financially backward sections of the society. While in an odd way to curb the macabre caused due to the absence of liquor, the Kerala government, in a rare move, issued a statement for doctors to prescribe liquor to the people who have made it an opportunity to mope and moan over the absence of their daily dose. Apart from that, the Kerala government has been at the forefront to tackle down the deadly pandemic.
But what made the news on April 3 was by a sort an unprecedented mark of service that deserves approbation. Pictures emerged with RSS workers distributing food kits to GB road sex workers who themselves covered with a dupatta over their mouth and nose while receiving the food kits. It was the last thing one would expect from RSS, as the organization has been often labeled as an extremist for their staunch religion politics and ideology, was now seen lending their hands to an ostracized section of the society. RSS Joint General Secretary, Anil Gupta confirmed that a list of 986 sex workers had been made.
We have a very lopsided and inhuman perception of sex workers. People mock them for working on a lost cause and even curse them as untouchables. The sex workers of GB road who have seen no business over the past one week are also devoid of getting vegetables. The vendors hesitate to give vegetables to them on credit. Some of the sex workers are even afraid of getting affected by coronavirus by being exposed to the unhygienic atmosphere within the premise.
While it’s tough to change the century-old perception surrounding the sex workers, what RSS did can be taken as a substantial precedent to rope in more and more NGOs to do a favor for the caged voices of the society and thereby establish a long road to uplift these vulnerable many.
It’s the need of the hour to tie the loose ends to bring in the new normal that involves audacity and thinking big. Someone with a mandate among the masses should lead us from the front. It has been happening. Just listen and act.