{"id":551,"date":"2020-05-13T13:37:55","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T10:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/?p=551"},"modified":"2020-05-13T13:37:55","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T10:37:55","slug":"reality-of-social-distancing-and-lockdown-in-low-income-settings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/2020\/05\/13\/reality-of-social-distancing-and-lockdown-in-low-income-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"Reality of social distancing and lockdown in low-income settings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The only known planet for human to survive naturally\nis experiencing a huge challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the\nchallenge is still far away from similar past challenges in terms of its effect\non human survival, it has already made considerable damages in terms of loss of\nlives, and deceleration in economic and societal progresses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a creatively adaptive species, we human beings have\nresponded to this challenge by taking measures such as social distancing and\nlockdown. These are not something new as nations and societies during past\npandemics applied these measures to prevent the spread of a pandemic of such a massive\nscale. However, population density and divide between various income segments within\nand between countries have increased substantially since the last known\npandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While most of the high-income countries have the\nadvantages of low population density and high support from social and\ngovernmental institutions to cope with current pandemic, the reality is\ncompletely different for low-income countries that are blessed(!) with large\npopulations. The reality for a large section of people in these low-income\ncountries is such that they must make a choice between dying of the disease or\nhunger. Why is the situation like this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality for a large section of people in these low-income countries is such that they must make a choice between dying of the disease or hunger. <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

One of the key reasons is the inadequacy or absence of\nsafety net programs for supporting low-income or vulnerable groups in this\nexceptional period. Though the governments of these low-income countries are\ntrying to provide relief to these large population segments, the one-off\nassistances do not reach them in many cases due to the presence of corruption\nat the operational or field level. These factors together force low-income\npeople to go out of their homes to earn something for their survival. This also\nmeans that social distancing is practically impossible in an already densely\npopulated country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically, low-income settings are associated with low\neducation profiles of the inhabitants. This means that the lexicons such as\nsocial distancing and lockdown, and their meaning and gravity are profoundly\nfuzzy to these segments of the population. So, they go out and flock together\nin public places with the main motive to earn their livelihood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another very interesting paradox that has caught my\nattention is that in some cases factories in low-income countries have resumed\ntheir operations suddenly in the midst of government-declared lockdown or\nrestrictions. Consequently, workers are forced to march back in thousands to\nthe industrial parks or cities to join their workplace in the fear of losing\ntheir jobs. While factory owners and industry associations in these low-income\ncountries are trying to save their foreign customer base, the workers are being\nexposed to life-threatening practices and conditions. In these cases, too, essentiality\nof earning livelihood dominates social distancing and lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there any way out from this scenario? Well, if\nchallenges are there, so are their solutions. It applies not just to the\nongoing pandemic, but also to the current realities in low-income settings. It\nmay be a high ask to instantly bury the deep-seated bureaucratic controls and\ncorruptions prevailing in these settings. What is more needed now is the coordination\namong public, private, and non-governmental institutions to develop sustainable\nassistance programs and implement those programs with compassion and\nresponsibility. People living in low-income segments will follow social\ndistancing and lockdown only if they know what these really mean, and more\nimportantly, if they receive some form of financial assistance from the social\nand governmental institutions.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arafat Rahman<\/a><\/em>
Doctoral Student<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: The Daily Star<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The only known planet for human to survive naturally is experiencing a huge challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the challenge is still far away from similar past challenges in terms of its effect on human survival, it has already made considerable damages in terms of loss of lives, and deceleration in economic and …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[53,52,62,63,60,61],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cers-blog","tag-corona","tag-covid-19-2","tag-lockdown","tag-low-income","tag-pandemics","tag-socialdistancing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":553,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}