A disaster brings out the best and the worst in people. During the lockdown, I was trying to find an oxygen concentrator for a friend who was in home isolation with Covid and faced breathing difficulties. As a result, I stumbled upon a large network of black marketeers who are thriving in this pandemic.
First, the Good. The common people have rallied, as always, some giving food for Covid patients, some providing care for elders and children, doing their shopping, providing pet care and so on. Throughout this and the previous lockdown in Chennai, Blue Cross of India’s volunteers went around feeding homeless strays, who generally live on scraps thrown by passing pedestrians and tea stall owners, all of which cease in a lockdown. During the floods of 2015, private individuals and associations took out boats to save those inundated in water and several kitchens were set up to feed the poor. Living in Chennai, which has seen regular disasters ranging from floods and droughts to cyclones and now this pandemic, one gets inured to calamities, and to seeing the best in people.
But this time we are seeing the worst—and not just in Chennai. The price of everything required to avoid or treat the pandemic shot through the roof. An N95 mask cost Rs 250. An oxygen concentrator, normally costing Rs 35,000-40,000, shot up to Rs 1,25,000 in Chennai and between Rs 2-3 lakh in the richer cities of Mumbai and Delhi. Remdesivir cost Rs 25,000 per vial in the black market. Ambulance services cost a bomb. Numerous accounts of price rise were reported: airfares peaked, while a bus ticket worth Rs 500 was sold for Rs 4,000 the day before the lockdown. Migrant workers had to pay through their nose for a ticket to go home. Vegetables and groceries—even those supplied by the government—became more expensive. Meanwhile, the lockdown closed the ration shops and kirana stores on which the poor and the middle class depended, while e-commerce platforms, to which few have access, were categorised as essential services and permitted to function.
This is the Bad—the evil Indian black marketeer who profits on people’s distress. This has been a part of India’s social history: usurers who lend money at exorbitant rates during a drought or illness or weddings and money lenders who feed on people’s tragedies, making them indebted for life. What do these people learn at school or from their parents? Obviously, they are not taught the difference between right and wrong!
The British enacted the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 to tackle bubonic plague in Mumbai and contain epidemics by providing special powers to the government to control the spread of disease. According to this law, anyone disobeying the orders of a public servant could be punished under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code. Chapter X of India’s Disaster Management Act of 2005 is full of punishments and penalties. However, Section 53—“Punishment for misappropriation of money or materials, etc.,”—only punishes the guilty for two years with maybe a fine. It does not mention black marketing. Meanwhile, the Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980, provides that the “maximum period for which any person may be detained… shall be six months from the date of detention.” Ridiculous! As if black marketeers care if they are locked up for six months. They will come out and expand their business.
India never expected a public health emergency like Covid-19. The country ranks 179 out of 189 in healthcare expenditure in the annual budget. Rates of hospitalisation are 3-4% compared to 8-9% in middle income countries. Private hospitals are money-making industries with no commitment towards lowering rates of disease or death. One person I know spent Rs 18 lakh for his Covid treatment in a five-star hospital in Chennai. We have just had elections in five states: health infrastructure and care never made it to the political discourse. Meanwhile, hospitals had only a few hours of oxygen available, while antiviral drugs and ventilators have been hard to find. What a wonderful opportunity for the black marketeer! An MLA was indicted for hoarding several oxygen cylinders. I wonder how many he sold. If politicians—the rajas—do this, what do you expect from the praja or people?
It is time the Central and state governments woke up to the evils of the black market. All politicians know who the black marketeers are, where they are situated and where they hoard—after all, most contribute liberally to every political party. They must be tried and convicted in public fora if we are to have a cleaner and greener society. The prices of medical supplies and food must come down and black marketeers caught and imprisoned, with stricter laws than the weak punishment mentioned above.
And finally, the award for the Ugly goes—as always—to China. A social media post by China’s top law enforcement body, the Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, on its official Sina Weibo account, compared the Tianhe module launch and its fuel burn-off to pictures of mass outdoor cremations in India, and captioned them as “China lighting a fire versus India lighting a fire.” Ironically, the Chinese rocket lost its way and ended up as debris in the Indian Ocean, earning the world’s ire. So much for the Chinese fire. The world media’s role was also shocking, broadcasting images of burning bodies. Is nothing sacred anymore?
Nanditha Krishna, Historian, environmentalist and writer based in Chennai (nankrishna18@gmail.com)