Two birds looking in two directions!

The media is commenting adversely on all those who do not follow the 'stay at home' plan fo the government as part of the COVED 19 containment plan. 

I met mu neighbour after he was returning after his morning bath in the stream. He looked fully shaven. I wondered why he removed his moustache! He stopped to talk about his predicament without his wife or him having their regular income for two weeks now. He has his mother and two children to support. He told me that if the government has one plan to contain the infection, we have another one, to survive and support tour families. 

This made me think! Only when people are free of their daily travails, they can be made to think in another direction. If Singapore, South Korea, Hong kong, Australia, etc are doing better in containing the corona infection, it might be because the governments and the citizens look in one direction.  The citizens when assured of begin well taken care of, they follow the larger call of the government. 

I have suspicion and even a confirmation from many comments which appear in small print or receive a brief mention without any repetition in the TV, that there is a disconnect between the government and the disadvantaged sections in the people. While preventing infection is a desperate need, keeping people well by meeting their minimum facilities is also equally important. 

Th government of India is politically strong, but its emotional quotient needs an upward revision. When the governments fail, it is often the civil society which comes to fill the gap. So it is an opportunity for the civil society to help its own people who do not fall in the mainstream of attention  of the governments. I sense this from the utmost callousness shown to migrant workers travelling out of Delhi last week in thousands on foot, to reach their homes 200 to 400 kilometres away.

It is time that the whole of civil society and the governments in Delhi and state capitals look in one direction. 

The two birds in this blog look in tow different direction because they are oriented to find their interest and they look to the direction which would provide that! The provider determines the direction of action or response of those provided for! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)