The ongoing second wave of coronavirus has hit India with much greater fury than before. It’s a nightmare come to reality with the number of cases soaring to over 400,000 daily.  The condition of healthcare facilities continues to deteriorate every single day with patients struggling to find beds and gasping to death for want of oxygen cylinders.

All these setbacks can be attributed to a failed administration and governance which has cost us so many lives. There are news reports which talk about scarcity of space on the cremation grounds and multiple bodies being cremated on a single pyre. Every day one wakes up feeling like being in the middle of an apocalypse movie, but, unfortunately, it is all very REAL.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to address the public on April 20 saying keep helping each other and be each other’s support. But what about the support people need from the government? The constant tiff between the states and the central government has left the common citizens in a state of crisis. 

Amidst these trying times one ray of hope is definitely the online community which is trying to provide and amplify every bit of information. Social media platforms have become help centres with loud and repeated calls for plasma donors, oxygen cylinders, medicines etc. 

These young people have become the real heroes who are personally calling up organisations, medical facilities and ensuring whatever is needed by anyone is available online. Many have even created Covid resources online for easy accessibility for anyone in distress. In these times when civilians don’t have any hope from the government they have come to each other’s rescue and the spirit of humanity and togetherness can be seen at its peak.

Crisis in the academia

Alongside the huge health crisis, the pandemic has created a major crisis in academia as well. We were slowly coming back to normal life with campuses opening in phases, but here we are back to where we started. The Ph.D. submissions which were scheduled to happen in 2020 have been postponed to 2021 and the ones scheduled for 2021 have no dates decided as of now. The field trips, which are of crucial importance for many subjects and domains, are cancelled and postponed till countries really open up for academic travel and conference presentations. 

The competitive exams are continuously being postponed, the jobs related to research and teachings are facing an acute crisis. There is an economic distress as a lot of Delhi University (DU) faculty haven’t been paid and a lot of private institutions have halved the salary of the teachers/professors. 

Though a majority of population may argue that online mode of teaching is better, not everyone has access to the online facilities, especially students who don’t hail from privileged backgrounds. Places like Jawaharlal Nehru University, DU, Jamia Milia Islamia etc – all premier institutions located in the national capital - have students hailing from extremely poor backgrounds who don’t have any resources back home to study and hence it is becoming all the more difficult for them to continue their studies. 

A lot of students have dropped out of schools and higher degree programmes because of the pandemic as they don’t have the resources required for online learning.

Government’s lopsided priorities

Considering the huge drop-out rate from colleges and employment equivalent to negligible what alternative does the young population have? Will the government help them get jobs or that task also is left on the youth? The government was busy organising large scale Kumbh Melas (Hindu religious festival) and election rallies despite the rising number of cases but there wasn’t any permission for academic conferences. 

Academic life is again facing the brunt of the pandemic. Apart from the academic and financial setbacks that the youth faced, they are even struggling to maintain their own mental peace. They are trying hard to make their ends meet, not having proper education and jobs, struggling to keep themselves safe and are sorely disappointed with the government.

If one really feels youth is the future of tomorrow there needs to be better facilities in health to first keep them alive. And the youth in turn have to be aware citizens of the country and question the government.

Citizen's duty

Being apolitical is no longer an option and one needs to know and be aware of the loopholes and issues at hand. There are so many vacant positions in many government and non-government organisations that should be open for employment immediately. Unless the pandemic is properly administered and lessons learnt from the havoc, nothing can work effectively. 

The government and administration need to learn from the past one year’s experience and accordingly prioritise health care facilities, speed up vaccination programmes in an effective and organised manner. Then simultaneously create opportunities or programmes to generate employment for the youth. 

Citizens need to be proactive as well. Then only will there be an improved situation in the country and together one can fight the coronavirus successfully.

(Tripti Chowdhury is a Ph.D scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Views are personal. She can be contacted on tripti.chowdhury20@gmail.com)