COVID-19 and Vulnerable People - DE FACTO JIL
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COVID-19 and Vulnerable People
Introduction
Vulnerability is universal as well as particular. Vulnerability is a concept of social, political
exclusion. Vulnerable people have limited enjoyable resources. Vulnerable people are
excluded from participation in many things. Like vulnerable people have no right to
participate in governance etc. In many of the societies vulnerable people are discriminated
because of their religion, gender etc. It is very difficult to define vulnerability. In India certain
groups of people are excluded from scholarship and it is a challenge faced by the government
to provide benefits and protection to them. Muslims can be considered as vulnerable in India
and this is because they are minority group of people but for example in Pakistan Muslims
can be treated in a great manner not as like vulnerable in India. So, there is the difference in
every parts of the country. The term vulnerable comes from the Latin word “vuln us” which
means “wound”.1 Vulnerable groups of people include children, old age people, disabled
people, people suffering from chronic illness, ethnic minorities etc. At present not only the
vulnerable groups but also all the people of the world are facing the problem of coronavirus
and this problem is not easily be removed or destroyed.
At present not only in India but also in most of the countries of the world are facing the
problem of COVID-19. Coronavirus is an infectious disease. COVID-19 is a burning issue. It
is a newly discovered and caused by a newly discovered disease which affects some people
mentally and physically from one person to the other. In December, 2019 the outbreak
regarding this novel coronavirus began in Wuhan, China. Earlier this virus was unknown to
everyone. But now it is spread in everywhere around the world and the life of the people now
are at risk. Now situation is like if we take one step out from our house then this virus can
also affect us. Till now no one is able to make any particular medicine or vaccine for curing
this coronavirus. Research is going on to make such vaccine which will be helpful in the
process of curing this disease. The doctors, nurse are doing a great job and fighting against
the coronavirus. Most of the doctors and nurses are also affected by this virus through
providing treatment to the patient of coronavirus. The police are also doing a great work
during this dangerous situation. USA, Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey, India, Russia,
Spain, UK has reached at highest infected cases of coronavirus. It is the time which we have
to fight against corona virus and the only thing we can do is to quarantine ourselves. We have
to maintain the mental status of us. Someone said that you will have more life as you can.
COVID-19 may affect everyone whether it is physically, mentally or economically.
1 See Latin Dictionary
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Vulnerable groups and COVID-19 pandemic
Vulnerable groups are mostly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Following are the
vulnerable people who are at risk and suffering during the present pandemic coronavirus.
1. Poor people: - India is a country where a large number of people are homeless and a
large number of people do not have job. They used daily basis work as their income
source. There are also some people who are living in street or footpath and they have
no work. They used to beg from others people. Because of coronavirus the
government of India declared curfew and lockdown in every part of the country. This
lockdown has stopped the daily basis income of some people. For example, the
rickshawala, thelawala, barber, shopkeeper etc. There are also some people who are
under the below poverty line. They are suffer a lot during this pandemic because now
the things like oil, lentils, fish, meat, rice, vegetables price are hike and the poor
people are fail to buy these things because they have no income. The government of
India asking the serving peoples to adopt at least two or three houses for providing
some foods to live during the lockdown periods basically those people who are in the
below poverty line. But most of the serving people do not provide foods, some are
providing foods for one or two days only and they show the government that they are
giving lots of foods to those people that they adopt properly. At present many people
are dying because of poverty and hunger. During the time of coronavirus most of the
high schools, colleges and universities used to provide teaching through online mode.
And there are some students who are not having any smartphones, laptops etc. to earn
knowledge through online platform as their family are not able to provide them an
android phone because of their poverty. And this problem makes a path towards the
study life of those poor children and they are not happy with this online teaching-
learning mode. Figure 1 shows a picture of a poor family living in footpath in
Guwahati recently captured by a person crossing the road for collecting medicine in
the month of April.
Figure 1: picture of a poor family. (Source:
Author)
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Figure 2 shows a picture of two student raising voice against the online mode of
teaching.
Figure 2: picture of 2 poor students.
(Source: www.facebbok.com)
2. Old age people: - Old aged people as vulnerable faces a lot of problem during this
lockdown period. Old aged people cannot afford food and cannot able to earn by their
own. They are depending to some other person. There are some old people who have
no one to take care of themselves. Their life has become risky at this period of time.
Some people provide food for them in the early stage of lockdown and at present they
have not getting anything from anyone. Figure 3 shows a picture of a poor lady
staying home helplessly during the time of lockdown. The picture is collected by the
author. The picture shows an old lady living in a village named Khanikar 9 kilometres
far from Dergaon town. She is very poor and whiles the author asking her about how
she survives during the lockdown period. She told the author that during the first
lockdown period some people provide food for her. But as days goes on no one came
to help her. As she doesn’t do anything for herself she begs the government as well as
non-government organization to provide some needs to her. Recently she died
because of her poor condition.
Figure 3: Picture of an old lady captured during
the time of covid-19 pandemic. (Source: Author).
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3. Disabled: - Disabled people as vulnerable are most at risk in the covid -19 pandemic.
They are not able to do things personally. They are depending on some other person.
Some disabled people are living their life by begging in the train, bus stop, and many
other places. But because of the coronavirus they are not able to collect single cents
for spending their life and buying food and all. Mentally ill person are at most
dangerous position in this lockdown period. At present everyone stay in their home
but mentally ill person do not know what is happening around the world. They used to
loitering here and there. At this point of time their life is at risk of getting infected by
corona. Somewhere in a place, a mentally ill person collects things from a dustbin and
he tried to wear cloths which he had found from that dustbin. The dustbin is stand in
front of a hospital and the cloths which he tried to wear were thrown by the doctors of
that hospital. The mentally ill person does not harm anyone if nobody harms them. If
anyone sees a mentally ill person doing such things try to stop them otherwise these
things may make risk the life of that mentally ill person. Figure 3 shows a picture of a
mentally ill person in Dergaon dated on 25 May, 2020. This picture is captured by a
doctor by going through his chamber and gives some food to the mentally ill person.
Figure 4:
Picture of a mentally ill person during the time of covid -19 pandemic. (Source:
collected by the authors who provide him some food frequently to this mentally ill
person).
4. Children: - Children as vulnerable are also affected by the COVID-19. Children who
are in their career building stage and there is happening this pandemic and all schools
are closed and the minds of those children are not prepared for study at this period of
time. Some schools are not having any kind of teaching method. The COVID-19 may
affect these children. India is a country where poverty is a never ending problem.
Children who are belonging to a lower middle class family and poor family are not
able to provide telephones and other electronic devices. The day by day d eveloping of
technologies makes the life easier to many people. But the poor children failed to
excess those facilities due to their poverty. Therefore they are facing the problem of
gap in the learning process and their education is not complete due to this problem.
www.defactojil.com Figure 5 shows poor children who used to collect money by selling of tea during the time of the COVID-19. The life of this child is in danger because at the time of lockdown and rapidly raising the number of active coronavirus patient, this child used to sell tea for money and try to removes his hunger and he can also infect from the novel coronavirus. Figure 5: picture of a poor children selling tea in street at the time of COVID-19. (Source: www.facebook.com). 5. Migrant workers: - Migrant workers suffer a lot during the time of COVID -19 pandemic. Migrant workers are not able go there home. Sometimes it so happened that the family members of the migrant workers are died but they are not able to see them for the last time. Migrant workers are not able to coming back to their home because of this coronavirus. The migrant worker shown in figure 6 cannot able to go to his home due to centrally locked down in India even also he has lost his 2 year son at the time of COVID-19. Figure 7 shows a picture of a migrant worker who carrying his 6-year-old son and passes by Khora Colony in Ghaziabad on May 26, 2020 as he walks towards Etowah in Uttar Pradesh after crossing the Delhi and U.P border. Sonu Sood is a Bollywood celebrity who is helping migrant workers and tries to send back to their home by providing bus services. Figure 6: view of a migrant worker during the time of lockdown. (Source: www.facebook.com)
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Figure 7: view of a migrant worker and his son at the time of covid -19. (Source:
www.facebook.com, Captured by Press Trust of India)
6. People who are living in detention centre: - People who are staying in detention camp
are considered as vulnerable group. They also face a lot of problem in the COVID-19
pandemic. People who are staying in detention camp, they have the high risk of
affecting by this COVID-19.
7. Women: - Women as vulnerable faced various problems in the COVID-19. They are
suffering physically as well as mentally. Some suffers the problem of harassment
because of drunkenness. In a recent case of May 2020, one military retired person
shoot his two son and wife and also two other person and this was resulted because he
was fully drunk and he was totally out of control. This is not only one case; there are
various other cases where women face a lot of problem. Specially, the pregnant
women are also at a high risk. At present, most of husbands are not able to bring
precaution, contraceptive etc. for their wives but they want to make physical contact
with their wife. This may make the life of many women at risk during the lockdown
period.
8. People who have chronic illness such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease,
sickle cell disease etc. put them at higher risk of severe illness if they contract
coronavirus, they must stay at home to protect themselves.
9. Minority people are also suffering during the time of COVID-19. For example in
India, most recently there was various news spread that these minority people are
liable for spreading the novel coronavirus as some of them are attend ing a religious
meeting which was organised somewhere in Delhi and because of attending that
meeting their main motive is not to spread the virus. It is shameful to declare a
particular community liable for such an infectious disease.
Quarantine and prevention of diseases in International law perspective
People with coronavirus have speedy spreading across the borders facing economic crisis all
over the world. It is not only confining a public health problem but also a socio-economic
www.defactojil.com problem which need to have gone vast in international laws as well in domestic laws to control the situation. COVID-19 is an international issue therefore there is need to have some control mechanisms and to successfully overcome this disaster. The international law plays a key role in global surveillance, observations as well as inspections. The international law played an important role in balancing the situation in relation to diminishing diseases and facilitating the information on communicable diseases and establishing international health organisation. For example; The International Labour Organisation, World Trade Organization etc. The first international sanitary conference held in Paris in France in 1851 marked the history that it is the first attempt for establishing mechanisms for international cooperation for disease control. WHO is an organisation established concerning the international public health and work with the aim of providing security to the public at international level. At the COVID-19 this organization provides various measures to be taken by the public. This organisation deals with the protection and improvement of the life of an individual even also in crisis like COVID-19. Any country may send reports to the WHO if they are facing any kind of pandemic. Conclusion Some countries are marginalised; some are discriminated due to some unnecessary issues. Some countries are economically poor so they are not able to deal and cope up with highly infected diseases and therefore those countries are more vulnerable. For avoiding the novel coronavirus not only the vulnerable people, everyone should maintain good hygiene and social distance. At this point of time there is the need to quarantine our self and put our self into self-isolation. People should support vulnerable people in shielding. If possible then everyone should try to take care of those vulnerable people. A group of academics has suggested that the lockdown should be tighten for elderly people or pre-existing medical conditions so that restrictions can be relaxed for everyone else and this may help in starting of normal life. Now, we have nothing in our hand but we can help the vulnerable as much as we can by following social distancing. There are some places, where people are not aware about the fact and overcomes of coronavirus and do not know about coronavirus. Therefore, there is the need of creating awareness among the people of those places. There is the need of allowing people to work and also provide safety measure for them. There is the need of providing medicine to the pregnant women and also need to take care at the time of giving birth during the time of coronavirus. Avoid travelling, avoid contacting with corona suspected person. Everyone should co-operate with the government for betterment of the human life and also for other living kingdom. During this difficult period of time, we should help them in every possible means and cares. Try to stay in touch with them if they need any help. Try to provide food for them. Try to provide medical facilities if there is any emergency occurs. Also encourage others in doing the same. Nayanmoni Dutta
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