Today, the whole of humanity, the whole world is going through a crisis. Before this, various other crises must have come and we have reached here only by facing those. The present crisis, we also have to face and there is no way out.

Last year, the disease called Coronavirus, which started in the month of December, has taken the form of a pandemic today. The virus, which started in the city of Wuhan in China, has caught many countries of the world. India is also not untouched by this virus as a significant number of people suffering from this disease have been encountered.

There is no vaccine for this virus yet, caution is the biggest defence. Important instructions are also being issued to the people from time to time by the government and health department. Strict adherence to these guidelines will be better for everyone.

The era of this crisis has also given rise to very important questions, such as what is the importance of science and scientific thinking in today’s time?  Another important question is why the walls of caste, religion, gender, region and country or nation could not stop this disease?

Importance of science and scientific thinking

Today, two types of posts are seen everywhere on social media. One is describing the Coronavirus treatment according to their religion, prescribing the prescriptions and the other is making sarcasm on the first ones. But the truth is that today every person, irrespective of religion, is waiting for the scientists to prepare the coronavirus vaccine.

I have seen many people, who are praying day and night that scientists should prepare the vaccine as soon as possible. The leaders of political parties, religious institutions who were engaged in spreading superstitions day and night are also today advising the people to wash their hands, prevent people from going to the crowd and strictly follow the instructions given by the health experts.

Yes, it is also true that even today some people are recommending a lot of foolish prescriptions and cures to people to maintain their religious-political identity, but these people are getting befitting reply, from time to time. It is usually said that “necessity is the mother of invention”. Similarly, these times of trouble have positively affected our scientifically backward social thinking, our attitude towards science and scientific thinking.

Why couldn’t Corona be able to stop the borders of nations?

The second important question is why today walls like religion, caste, gender and country and nation could not succeed in stopping the coronavirus?  It is a big question that we are socially divided into thousands of castes and many religions. More than half of the population has been deprived of basic rights in the name of caste and gender. The road to growth has been kept closed for them, from centuries. Even today not a day passes when Dalits and Adivasis are not harassed on the basis of their identity, women have to face abusive crimes like violence, rape etc even today due to their gender.

Religion remains the basis of our politics even today. Even today, in the name of religion, people are being tricked, and followers of one religion are being fought with followers of another religion. Riots in the name of religion are common. We are hating each other for castes, for having different religions, the people of other countries have also been hated for being different, but this crisis has shown that human being is a caste in itself, humanity is a religion in itself and human beings cannot have any caste and humanity cannot have any religion.

Today, the time has come for us to remove caste, religion, gender-based discrimination from the mind and consider humans as human beings and eradicate conflicts based on caste, religion, gender and at the same time. We need to understand that the country we wish to build can not be built while keeping all discriminating practices alive. We are living in India, but we are part of international human society.

How this disease called coronavirus started in China and spread to almost all the countries of the world. No nation-country border could stop this disease and it is also worth seeing how this disease is related to religion, caste and  not seeing gender-based discrimination, everyone is being engulfed. Irrespective of caste, religion or gender, the virus is affecting everyone.

And finally, all of us today are hoping that a scientist of any caste, religion, gender and country or a nation be able to prepare a vaccine and save our lives.

Coronavirus prevention measures

A lot of guidelines have been issued to the people from time to time by the government and health experts, such as wash your hands frequently, avoid going into the crowd, stay at home more and more, protect yourself and family/friends too etc.

Government departments, police departments and health departments are being used with great efficiency, but many statistics are also being seen which are also highlighting the weaknesses of the health system of our country.

The data released by the Union Health Ministry shows that the situation in the country is so severe that one doctor per 11,600 Indians and for 1,826 Indians has only one hospital bed. There is one isolation bed in the country for 84,000 people, one quarantine bed at 36,000 people (reference: – The Wire).

There are only 30,000 ventilators in India, such figures which are coming out the day are presenting a very scary picture of our health system.

The Corona crisis should be taken as a warning and as soon as possible we should go towards restoring peace in the society by destroying all kinds of un-equal ideas such as casteism, communalism and patriarchy in society. If there will be justice and peace, only then can we think of providing basic amenities to the people, otherwise, discrimination in Covid-19 relief will be affecting so-called lower castes only.

On the other hand, the amount of money that we have to spend on defence and arms purchases, with that money, can we not provide basic facilities to the people of our country like education, health and employment? But all this can be possible only when we have good relations with the neighbouring countries and the problems which are there to be solved through talks and do not need arms to handle any conflict.

Along with this, people should also try to understand that it is not a wrong thing to love their country, but to hate the people of another country is wrong. One can love one’s country without hating other country people. Now, we must understand this and understand the rest as well. At the national level, we need organizations that can support equality and humanitarian ideology. In order to spread and give a direction to the society, similarly, we need organizations at the international level that can find solutions through dialogue in neighbouring countries and speed up the process of peace restoration.

At the international level, it is very important to strengthen the organizations that can solve the mutual problems of the nations peacefully. Finally, it is now proved that the human beings of the whole world are one and in this crisis situation caste should not come in the way of relief.

Author – Praveen Kumar Avarn
(The author is a social worker in Jammu)