Sudhir Kumar Rakesh, IAS (Retd)
Patna : Many unsung Warriors are facing the CORONA Crisis at their own level, in their own innovative ways. If you want to see how resourceful our Elected Panchayat Representatives (specially Women) are, go to Abhirajpur Bairiya Panchayat under Purnahiya Block in Sheohar District in North Bihar. You will find out for yourself.
While Masks have been recommended as one of the first lines of defence and the first barrier against the spread of CORONA (COVID-19) Virus, it comes to mind that providing so many millions of Masks for the entire population of India is a gigantic task. No such thought for Ruby Devi, the lady Mukhiya of Abhirajpur Bairiya Gram Panchayat. She decided that these Masks must be prepared in her Gram Panchayat itself, so that the cost and logistics involved in handling, storage, and transportation could be saved. She also figured out that preparing the Masks at local level in her Gram Panchayat would also considerably reduce the time taken in covering the entire Panchayat population.
With this in mind, she assembled those ladies in her Panchayat who had the requisite stitching skills and also identified the sewing machines in her Gram Panchayat. Next, she tapped a source for the supply of cloth which would go into the making of Masks. Women and Material in place, she unleashed the Nari-Shakti in her Gram Panchayat for the preparation of Masks on war footing.
Her goal is clear: she has to provide at least two Masks to each person (including children) in her Panchayat. The CORONA Police Warriors, the CORONA Health Warriors, the CORONA Agriculture Warriors (persons involved in harvesting, transportation and storage of the standing crop), the CORONA Sanitation Warriors and all other types of CORONA Warriors working in/for Abhirajpur Bairiya Panchayat under Purnahiya Block shall be getting at least five Masks each.
She also plans to sanitise these Masks with the help of locally available resources after their preparation but before their actual distribution to the target groups. Ideally, she would like to sanitise these Masks with boiling hot water and Dettol/Savlon. If she is unable to get so much of Dettol/Savlon, these Masks will be sanitised with boiling hot water and alum (which is generally used as an after -shave disinfectant in villages), dried in the hot sun and then be packed and supplied
She hopes to achieve this target within the next seven days with the help of her friends and colleagues in the Gram Panchayat. No doubts in the minds of her team in this regard! They have set this goal for themselves and are going to achieve it within time.
Solutions for most of our CORONA related problems lie in allowing local initiative to be tried out. The solutions also lie in decentralisation of activities. Some hand holding by the Centre/States/Districts is required in the beginning. After that our Gram Panchayats are quite capable of carrying on. Decentralisation of activities would also result in saving a lot of time, energy and money on packing, storage, movement and distribution of items like Masks. If the governments decide, cloth and thread may be made available to these Panchayats from within the State/District. In certain cases, these raw materials may have to be supplied to certain States/Districts from outside. But those will be exceptions, not the rule.
We have to trust our own governments. Our governments have to trust local units of administration, specially Gram Panchayats. It may not be possible for each Gram Panchayat to carry out each activity. That is where pooling of local skills and local resources, coupled with local talent and local initiative, would be required. Regular exchange of ideas can achieve this objective of pooling.
We require to do many things in the immediate future. All will be required either for fighting the impact of the CORONA pandemic or for boosting supplies and employment. There again Gram Panchayats and local initiatives would be playing a major role. We need to keep faith in ourselves and in our ability to solve our problems. We have done this for centuries and shall continue to do so in future.
Caution and Precaution are important, but sitting idle is not the solution. Each one of us needs to take whatever little constructive action is possible from within the confines of our locked down homes or from the limited sphere of movement which is permitted by the authorities. We must always abide by the direction given by the authorities. Yet we may be in a position to do something for the society and the nation.