Citizen Social Responsibility (CSR): What is COVID-19 bringing for us?
I personally feel convinced that this is not an appropriate time to find and analyse the management of pandemic COVID-19, the efforts and initiatives at different levels of governing mechanism, the success and failure, and the mistakes or strategy or intention associated in dealing with the pandemic. We, and the entire world, are passing through a very tough time, and this toughness is not confined to its present; it is going to be present in its absence also.
One important aspect being talked today and repeatedly by many imminent thinkers at many different platforms of electronic and print media is about dealing with pandemic and possibilities of better and more effective addressing of the issue. The perspectives argued for, and the criticisms and appreciations of the addressed pandemic are contextual and relevant, I accept. But what I assume situationally is that no emergency comes with a notice, and the decision taken at the time is an emergent one.
There are always possibilities of lacuna and defects in execution. What is required is that without having any prior conviction of intentional dishonesty, we should have an analysis of the measures adopted and taken, and should point to better ways to have a treasure of knowledge for dealing with such kind of emergencies in near or remote future. But poles apart from this, we also have to remember that COVID-19 is continuously and heavily hammering many important and inalienable aspects of our individual and social personality and giving a new colour to way and belief of our culture, irrespective of their particularities. We
have a serious threat, which may be more serious than the arbitrary use of coercive power by capable authority, of this colour turning permanent on our young population. If so, the pandemic will leave a permanent unwashable, and irremovable stigma on our faces. We have to focus more on understanding that possibility and prepare protection from that. So, I say that a vaccine is needed for both – Corona Virus and the Impact of Corona Virus.
Actual is being replaced by virtual; the range is open and limits undecided. In Schools, Colleges, and Universities, the classroom teachings are being replaced by online teaching. On the face of it, this looks very simple and purely a consequence of the pressure of the situation. What is worrisome is that this new way of teaching and mutual presentation can find suitability for its long continuance with limit tending towards permanence. This question attracts attention to a few social and psychological reasons.
Online teaching and learning make it logical to keep the students/learners off of any routine. This may be partially wrong for a few schools but totally right for universities. This apparently does not look alarming, but it is. Anywhere in the world and everywhere in India from the very beginning of education, the students were under imposed and gradually self-imposed restrictions to be in a routine and live a planned life. I do not argue that it was absolutely flawless; there were over restrictions resulting in underdevelopment and creating a feeling of exclusion among students. These were for many such factors that have lost their meaning in the referring world, and so I choose not to discuss them. But today, during the pandemic period, the forced facility to the students has been taken in a very casual way, and they are developing a selfish feeling to support this method.
There are many effects of this tendency. They are becoming habitual to be in themselves. They prefer isolation to sociality. The facilities they were not allowed to access are now being made available to them authoritatively. They are allowed or advised to use the Internet and all the resources available on that. YouTube does not have only study videos; it has all other kinds of stuff that we generally did not expect our immature children to have access to. But today, we have to allow them the use of smartphones in the name of teaching.
We can argue that the students will take care of themselves, but think rationally and logically; can we afford to leave this crucial decision on them and their immature morality and rationality? I want to add here that in addition to providing an unguaranteed facility, this is also precipitating a feeling of being ‘others’ or being forced to be ‘others.’ Due to the inequality in the availability of resources and incapability of optimizing the available resources, the present situation is unwontedly cementing the hierarchy in the social structure.
Everyone in our country does not have quality phones to access the online resources, and in every part of our country, the network and connectivity are not equally available. So, invisible categories are being created among students ranging from juniors to seniors. The first category has all resources, and then there is the second one, which does not have the required resources. This is not confined to students only. The families are also being forced to feel categorized. This is truly unfortunate, and we should not allow this to crystallize.
In the pandemic period, we have a society without sociality. We are confined to our houses and keeping away from any social gathering and meeting. I again accept it as the demand of the time and fully support that we must adhere to all rules and regulations, including social distancing, to contain the spread of the virus. What needs to be taken into serious consideration is the tendency in the recent past, of the decline of social capital.
For the last few years, an anxious mentality, particularly among our youths, is markable, and that is of ‘priority to self over selves.’ The young world is more concerned about their ‘immediate’ rather than their ‘stable,’ their ‘personal’ than their ‘social.’ Their personalities are shrinking within their own selves; they are being pushed by the current, but without realizing and accepting the inevitability of the force of the current and without knowing where they are being pushed to. The present pandemic has not only justified; it has glorified their shrinking and solitariness. I am not arguing about opposing the present strategy, but I am definitely arguing to be alert about the dynamics of this tendency.
The social scenario that one can visualize in post-Corona India is drastically different from one that we had in pre-Corona India. As far as possible, people will be confined to their respective areas and works, direct interactions will be avoided, movements will be limited, universities and colleges will be without students, actual will be replaced by virtual, public sphere will be lost, public opinion will be created by social media and participatory politics will be replaced by politics of advertisement. All this can be tolerated in a temporary phase, but as a permanent scenario, this is horrifying.
We need a moving economy, and so we essentially need a living society. A society with sociality is at risk in India. We can arrest the virus of the arbitrary abuse of power and defend and assist the being of an individual, but the fruits of the success of arrest cannot be cherished by the non-living society that the pandemic can bring about.
It appears to me in the scope of the present writing to talk little about the consequence of the shrinking of individual personality, particularly of the young generation. We have historically proven experiences that outlet for emotional anxiety is essential to save individuals from disintegration. This outlet may be a political, social, religious, or societal platform. In the COVID time, we are encouraging isolation and rightly so. We are discouraging our people and ourselves to socialize and move out unless unavoidable. This is a need of the hour, and I totally endorse it. The worry is about developing this for permanent respect.
I talked about the decline of social capital. This decline is directly proportional to ‘being within self.’ This is a case of isolation. Now this isolation does not provide or to be more accurate, does not allow any outlet for suppressed anxiety. The anxiety may be because of innumerable reasons like no exam for final year/semester students, no recruitments and no new joining for newly appointed, no social gathering, no discharge of responsibilities in personal relations, no engagements in extracurricular activities, no way to survive for disadvantaged, no way to help the loved sufferers, no ray of hope for future and many such others.
All these, if unexpressed and unshared, have the potential to lead to severe depression. This depression can develop a suicidal tendency, and in the burst of emotions can result in suicide. We have many such cases where even in the absence of known factors like money, prestige, status, and success, the young boys and girls committed suicide. We do not have any explanation for that except for our inability to provide an outlet for emotional anxieties. The pandemic is forcing isolation that can be accompanied by such consequences. We need to understand the challenges and prepare ourselves to counter that.
I close here by simply saying that we need a vaccine for COVID 19, and we also need a vaccine to keep our society alive. What can be the vaccine of COVID 19, is for the scientists to find out, but the vaccine for saving society must be discussed and invented on priority by social scientists to save our history and history of society.
The author, Dr Ashok Kumar Upadhyay, Professor and Head of Department – Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He can be contacted at [email protected] / [email protected].
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