This is perhaps the most pressing phase in collective history of the Mankind, currently inhabiting the Mother Earth. There is a stark fear that if prescribed practices are not adopted, a sizeable chunk of the Human Race would be seriously Compromised. One may say these are the ways Nature is trying to establish the Equilibrium or may be these are the collective sins of mankind but it is for sure that churning this time around will be Catastrophic.
What we know so far is that something has terribly gone wrong in Wuhan and its tremors are being felt across the Continents. There are too many speculative theories, not exactly sure which one is precisely the cause. The enemy that we are encountering is invincible so far. As of now, we don’t know any any arsenal to neutralise it, till such time the only measure we have got is to seriously undertake the Precautions.
Considering magnanimity of the Challenge at hand, 21 days Lockdown has commenced from yesterday midnight in Our Country to arrest the spread of this infection, considering its probability of getting spread Exponentially. This is the juncture we all need to be disciplined, sensible. But can we forget our ‘Dharma’ by not being compassionate ?
Being in IPS & as IGP CRPF we are one of the Essential Services declared by the Government, we are on duty during these testing times. Today on my way to office , at a prominent Chowk in Navi Mumbai, there were 4 men sitting helplessly on the footpath with absolutely no one in vicinity. On enquiry as to what they were upto in the Lockdown, we realised that they were in fact the Poor persons, Rag pickers etc. Curfew or no Curfew, open sky was the only place these 4 men had. Routinely feeding on daily activities, they couldn’t had anything since yesterday night and were quite hungry. Immediate thought of handing over some money came to my mind, only to realise that it won’t buy them anything instantly in Lockdown. Since my days in Bihar as an IPS officer, it has been a set drill to carry handful of Biscuits / Chocolates whenever you leave home and which has come handy on earlier occasions too, came handy at this time as well.
As they were still there at the same spot around meal time, our CRPF men at Western Sector in Navi Mumbai arranged Food for them, out of their own share. They were also provided with the masks & hand wash with briefing about the Corona Pandemic and various measures to keep it under check.
These are Unprecedented times. A lot is at Stake. These 21 Days shall be Monumental in determining our Future discourse. We should and We must extend Helping Hand to the Underprivileged in these trying Circumstances. Whatever little we can do for such people in our immediate surrounding, should be done. As a fellow countryman and as a fellow Human Being, it shall be Our moral obligation to take care of each other while maintaining Social Distance & ensuring necessary precautions.
Please do whatever you can manage for the Disadvantaged Sections during this phase but please do not compromise on the set drill & procedures enumerated by the Government to keep oneself safe from COVID-19.
We have to collectively deal with Corona & let’s hope we Indians with our great traditions, values & discipline shall win the battle together.
Stay Safe.
Practice Social Distancing.
(IPS officer Sanjay A Lathkar, posted as Inspector General in CRPF, is the author of write up)
