2020 was annus horribilis. Will 2021 be any different? Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they remain the same). We will have to wear masks, maintain social distancing, avoid crowded places and travel, and wash our hands several times. The vaccine may find us, but new variations are popping up. However, 2020 taught us several lessons that we would do well to remember.
The first and most important is to leave animals alone. Whether it is HIV, which crossed over from chimps carrying the SIV to humans in Congo, or swine flu, which originated on pig farms, or mad cow disease, which came from cattle sick with BSE, or Covid-19, which emerged from the animal markets of Wuhan, China, or other zoonotic diseases, intensive animal farming is a disaster for human health. Denmark culled 17 million minks that are now rising from their graves, pushed out by gas emitted from their decomposing bodies, contaminating the land and groundwater. At least, for our selfish sakes, let us stop animal farming in 2021. Covid was nature’s revenge and we are the sufferers.
The pandemic cleaned up the atmosphere and we enjoyed breathing fresh air. The rains were good and we are assured of both a good harvest and water supply in 2021. Trees and wildlife flourished. The ozone hole self-healed. What is life without clean air, water and food? We must make sacrifices to mitigate climate change and its effects. With the US back on the table, there is renewed hope.
Respect nature and she will take care of you. Even WHO chief A G Tedros—criticised for favouring China—has said that “attempts to improve human health are doomed without tackling climate change and animal welfare”. Then comes public health. Thanks to the pandemic, hospitals beefed up their infrastructure: Public health centres and government hospitals became clean and efficient. Public health is an essential duty of any government; we must be in perpetual readiness to cope with any health crisis. The Tamil Nadu government managed to bring down daily Covid numbers in the state to about 1,000. Well done. Governments can do well if they try.
The pictures of migrants walking the long road home were heart-rending. There needs to be a social security system. When companies have no orders, they cannot pay salaries. All governments must provide food grains, temporary shelters and cash—not only to ration card holders of their states but to those who work there but belong to another state. These people have no local ration cards: Why can’t the Aadhaar card suffice? India must evolve a national social security system, not only for times of crisis but also for the old, the disabled, and the disempowered. Food grains rotting in godowns and cash planned for expensive new constructions can be utilised to help the needy. Some states provide a nominal pension for the old, single women and widows, and the disabled, but even healthy young people need social security, a promise missing in every political manifesto.
2020 also proved that huge unsustainable offices were no longer necessary. Several companies—from IT majors to local chartered accountants and law firms—asked their employees to work from home, making the enormous glass-fronted air-conditioned buildings redundant. Work-from-home in 2021 will reduce infrastructure, energy and transportation costs, thereby reducing the carbon footprint and giving relief to the climate crisis. Technology is transforming the world: Let us welcome and apply it.
The biggest casualty in 2020 was education, and 2021 will not be different. But digital India can step in. My gardener’s children study at a government-aided school using their laptops, distributed free in Tamil Nadu. Every teacher and child of every class in every state must be given a tablet, supported by reliable broadband services, to teach, learn and satisfy the thirst for knowledge. The internet is a source of great learning, as my little grandson and I know, navigating wildlife and prehistoric animals together. If every teacher and student is given a tablet, it would close the digital divide and ensure that no child is left behind. It would also improve teaching quality when teachers know that they are in the public domain.
Parents have also learned parenting. Those children fortunate to have online classes are supervised at home, making their learning assured. Unfortunately, outdoor and group activities have suffered, and I doubt if they will return in a hurry as children are last on the vaccination list. But families have reunited and proven to be a source of infinite support, a role that must be nurtured.
Jobs were lost and women’s employment suffered most. Even the indispensable maids were unemployed as people hesitated to bring in daily workers. But that is when creativity, adaptation and innovation stepped in. A school bus driver set up a tea shop. Women tailored cloth bags and masks at home. People started cooking and supplying food from home. Home film-making, classes on just about everything, live streaming of music and dance, and lectures on economy, health and heritage were the new normal and will continue to be so in 2021. Terrace gardens have started blooming and there is a range of organic foods in the market. We must create a culture of innovation, for people to rediscover themselves and go forward. There is always light at the end of the tunnel.
And the final lesson learned is ‘Don’t trust China’. They let loose the pandemic on an unsuspecting world. They took over India’s lands, abolished democracy in Hong Kong, ran countries into debt and continue to create problems in the South China Sea. Every story needs a hero and a villain. The heroes
are the frontline workers who toiled through the pandemic. The villains are Xi Jinping and the Chinese government—2021 will be more of the same.
Nanditha Krishna
Historian, environmentalist and writer based in Chennai
(nankrishna18@gmail.com)