CRY OF HUMANITY IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC

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If you’re reading this, congratulations, you’re alive. If that’s not something to smile about, then I don’t know what is.

– Chad Sugg

The above quote justifies the cry of humanity in a simple line. We are in a state where migrants are displaced, the unorganized sector has no medical access, have nots are walking hundreds of kilometres just to return home, what has humanity really turned into?

Introduction

The COVID-19 is the test of global cooperation in this economy driven world where countries have to prioritize humanity and not money. COVID-19 is not a pandemic related to just health but it would redefine the structure of political world powers that could leave deep scars. It is stated that life cannot be normal as it was when the pandemic ended, however, there are numerous cases of human rights violations that must be taken into account. In lieu of responses, the doctrine of proportionality must be upheld as to immediate threats while protecting human rights and the rule of law. In order to assess the various violations, the article will look at it from the lens of social, economic, and political aspects.

The sorrowful state of internally displaced migrants

Stating about migrants, special reference has to be given to internal displacements as it is about two-and-a-half times that of international migrants. In the current situation, many migrants have lost their jobs and were forced to travel back home or were asked to remain in precarious living conditions due to the sudden announcement of lockdown. Children Migrants placed in the shelter facilities must be educated about good touch and bad touch to save them from sexual exploitation. A global perspective has to be considered in order to deal with the internally displaced migrants.

In India, misinformation is playing a key role in putting the lives of thousands of people at the stake as the famous Anand Vihar ISBT case happened. Then, there is the unfortunate case where some of the migrants are not included in the beneficiary economic schemes by the governments as they do not have proper documents. Migrants in Bangladesh which are Rohingya Muslims are not recognized as migrant members by Bangladesh, hence again excluded from the benefits.

The displaced migrant workers faced the prospect of huge health risks and the burden of handling the exodus of migrant workers fell on the government, who themselves had no time to prepare for such a consequence.

The curious case of Vulnerable Communities and Unsafe Genders

Women

Almost all the nations are facing an increase in the number of domestic violence cases reported since the lockdown has been announced. China’s Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak saw domestic violence cases nearly double while the calls to the women-helpline in Tunisia have increased five times.

France, have decided to fund hotel rooms for the victims of domestic violence and set-up counselling centres for women since there was a 36% increase in the number of cases of domestic violence. In addition to this, France has also decided to provide financial assistance of an additional one million euros to the organizations working for helping the domestic violence victims. In Spain and France, the government came up with a unique idea wherein women can go to the pharmacist and request a ‘Mask 19’ which shall be the code word for domestic abuse. The pharmacist can then contact the authorities and try to save women from abuse. India could install the same measures in order to provide financial support and security to women. These nations are increasing awareness and providing women with hotlines to help them out during the national crisis.

LGBTQ

LGBTQ communities face a challenge in accessing healthcare systems due to stigma, discrimination. These communities are facing barriers to accessing COVOID-19 services. In South Korea, there is a mass phobia seen against the LGBT community as they are directly related to the spreading of COVID-19 for no reason. Moreover, this prevented them from getting tested because of the fear of getting identified due to which access to basic medical facilities cannot be provided to them. For this, various states must provide state-supported information that there is no link of LGBT to COVID-19. In addition to that, educate people that COVID-19 does not distinguish between gender, race, colour, religion, or caste.

Islamophobia

Many countries have directly linked the spread of COVID-19 to islamophobia for no reason at all. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has requested states to prevent the spreading of such information as there it creates disharmony in the society that leads to conflicts. These conflicts can prove to be devastating in the time of COVID-19.

In India, the incident of Tablighi Jamaat was politicized by various incidents and was turned into a matter of communalism. The state was so saddening that people even stopped buying vegetables from Muslim vendors, and there we have the emergence of Islamophobia.

Sri Lanka is an island nation with a multi-ethnic heritage. But there also, Islamophobic propaganda is spreading in the country through the media and politicians. The Sri Lanka government chose to use the pandemic as an excuse to stigmatize Muslims who nearly form 10% of their population and related it with the earlier mass attacks caused by the community across the world.

The breach of privacy in the era of technology

The novel coronavirus does not have a cure yet and scientists estimate that the manufacture of one would take no less than a year. The South Korean database posits the detailed location of individuals who test positive. To track movement with higher accuracy, CCTV records, call records, and credit card purchases are also being monitored. In India indelible ink was used as a mark on the person’s hand mentioning their date of quarantine, this is something that has led to social ostracism in public and violated privacy at the same time.

In China, the place of the origin of the virus, getting into the workplace or even one’s home requires identification, recording body temperature, and scanning a QR code. Moreover, the Chinese government installed CCTV at the doors of quarantined individuals which is a clear-cut violation of privacy.

The United States, the country with the greatest number of affected people and labelled as the current hotspot of the virus, is moving ahead with the surveillance of mobile data of its citizens and is already in talks with tech giants such as Google and Facebook. The European Union has relaxed certain regulations of the widely hailed General Data Protection Regulation, and put its strategy to provide data sovereignty on hold, to allow member-states to locate the affected individuals with better accuracy. The relaxation of the GDPR alone stands as a testament of the EU establishing a hierarchy between the State’s and individual’s rights.

The major underlying issue is the absence of a relevant law, which ensures no certainties about the extent of protection of people’s privacy. This is especially unsettling concerning the prevailing narrative of pandemics likely to become more common in the near future. The absence of law leaves everything to the whims of the government in power. Edmund Burke rightly put it, “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.”

Conclusion

To ensure Humanity, while providing punishments the doctrine of proportionality must be applied which means the punishment must only be to the magnitude that is necessary and not more. Moreover, there is an urgent need to deal with vulnerable communities, migrants, unorganized labour’s and to bring them under beneficiary schemes. The economy must not be accelerated at the cost of life, as the basic essence of life is living and not money.