Against Conventional Wisdom: Foreigners Choosing To Stay Back In India During The COVID-19 Pandemic
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2020-04-14 07:25:13
About the Author
The news item that while 444 stranded Australian nationals had returned back to their country from India, many other foreign nationals, especially from the US, preferred to stay back was heartening. It is good to know that citizens of a developed nation like the US are scared to go back home as they hear reports of more than 1000 people dying of novel coronavirus in their country. It is in a way a tribute to the efforts of the Central and state governments in India to fight the pandemic that foreign nationals feel safer here.
India, to foreigners, especially Americans, has always been a country where nothing works. Although the image of snake charmers and assorted magicians roaming the streets has been largely obliterated, to most foreigners, India seems to be a relic from the past. To them, it is dirty, has too many people, has congested roads and dangerous traffic, unpalatable food and not much to recommend. Not many foreigners want to stay even one day more after visiting the golden triangle (Delhi-Jaipur-Agra) or perhaps Varanasi, Khajuraho, Goa and Kerala. Yet, during this worldwide pandemic, when faced with a choice to return home or stay in this 'dirty' country, some foreigners are choosing to stay in India.
When compared to countries like Italy, Spain, France, the US and even the UK, India has done an infinitely better job in controlling COVID-19. If the government had started screening passengers arriving from abroad more thoroughly from the middle of February, especially when they arrived from problem countries, and had decided to ban international flights a fortnight earlier than it was done and if the Nizamuddin Markaz had not taken place, maybe the number of active cases in India would not have crossed 5000 until now and the deaths would have been much lower. There are too many ifs in this and it is very easy to say all this with the benefit of hindsight. Working on a dual strategy of the lockdown and hotspot and cluster containment, the Centre and the states have managed to keep community transmission at bay. Though not enough testing has been done, it is now being taken up in newer areas and in newer ways. It has to be recognized that the first priority was to pin people to their current locations. That gave the government the scope to identify hotspots and clusters. Now, with testing in areas where no cases have been reported until now, the government is finally moving towards tackling the threat of asymptomatic persons spreading the virus.
With the lockdown slated to continue for two more weeks, albeit in a slightly watered-down version, the government will now need to tighten the screws in hotspots and clusters. Several state governments are doing exemplary work in this regard. While the Bhilwara model is rightly in focus, Uttar Pradesh has been proactive in cluster management (in fact it pioneered the idea in Agra much before any other state government thought about it), contact tracing and making self-reporting mandatory. Kerala, with numerous foreign tourists and returning workers from all over the globe, has been very successful in flattening the curve. West Bengal has shown how educating the people about social distancing (with CM Mamata Banerjee visiting markets and interacting with vendors herself) can keep things in check. It has also moved quickly to completely seal off some areas where even one case has been reported, a micro-cluster confinement strategy that seeks to avoid inconveniencing too many people. These are just four examples. Many other states are doing great work to combat the pandemic. The collective efforts of the Centre and the state governments are paying off and India seems to be succeeding in preventing community transmission as of now. But the next two weeks are crucial to implement the ongoing strategies in full and intensify testing and that is why most states want an extension of the lockdown.
