“When you face difficult times, know that challenges are not sent to destroy you, they’re sent to promote, increase and strengthen you.” - Joel Osteen

"Gone are the days when we used to sit together and chatter; gone are the days when we used to mingle with one another; gone are the days when we used to go to the school hand in hand and gone are the days when used to live freely without any fear.”

Such is the scenario of today's world where each of us is just engulfed with the apprehension of getting infected with one or the other disease. The whole globe is just full of morbidities and these diseases and disorders are just dominating human society day by day.

One such nerve-wracking event which occurred in the year 2019 was the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is believed to be an infectious disease that is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The symptoms include fever, cough, tiredness, and headache. Its severity varies from being so mild to be treated at home; to be so serious which may prove it to be fatal.

Thus, it has a wide range of gravity.

The initial wave of Covid-19 was not severe and proved to be damaging to just China and a few other Asian countries. The impact of this wave was hardly witnessed in India with the first case being witnessed in Kerala when a student returned from the University of Wuhan, China. But, surprisingly the mortality rate in India was among the lowest in the entire world. Many critics attributed this to the fact that Indians had already developed immunity because of the special dietary habits and ayurvedic practices.

India even emerged out to be a ‘Vaccine Hub’ supplying over 60 million doses of vaccine to other countries. The ‘Serum Institute of India’ and ‘The Bharat Biotech Limited’ proved to be the pallbearers of the vaccine drive. But, alas in April 2021 India witnessed a turning point in the whole pandemic situation.

There was a sudden spike in everyday cases which rose two-fold with each commencing day. This second phase of the Covid-19 pandemic peaked in the month of May resulting in thousands of deaths occurring on an everyday basis with more than a million fatalities being recorded in India.

The sudden yet devastating eruption in infections was largely debated on various news channels and social media platforms.

Much of the cause is attributed to the election rallies held during the elections at that time. Secondly, open religious ceremonies also emerged to be one of the most important contributing factors to the rise of infections.

The medical experts also attributed the over-centralization of power in the hands of the Prime Minister which resulted in the lack of an easy supply of oxygen cylinders from one state to another which was indeed the most important requirement of that time.

Thus, the whole pandemic situation was a severe condition that not only affected the whole world but also led to its effect on the smallest of businesses, too.

Apart from the various dimensions of its impacts the pandemic affected every nook and hook of Indian society.

Education:

The pedagogy sector was very badly impacted due to the pandemic. Over 250 million students had to leave out from school and discontinue their studies. Girls were highly affected during the pandemic mainly in the remote and rural areas of certain states in India.

Health:

The health sector was the worst affected by the pandemic. The lack of a proper health policy in India was brilliantly highlighted in the course of the pandemic. The lack of proper budgetary allocation with respect to the health sector was clearly underlined and this revoked the government to act in this field as soon as possible.

Food Sector:

Due to continuous lockdowns for over a year and a half, the stocks of food grains went rotten and people were still dying due to hunger. The lack of infrastructural linkage and transport supply due to the standstill brought down many groceries and food shops in India.

But...the most devastating impact of the pandemic could be witnessed on the economy of India, including that of other nations of the world.

THE WORLD ECONOMY

With hampered export-import between counties, lack of immigration and emigration between states, and many more restrictions, the overall economy of the whole world was severely impacted.

As per reliable statistics, there was a growth of 2.6% witnessed in the year 2019

And in the subsequent year, there was a contraction of 3.3% in the global economy. The developed countries contracted by 4.7% and the emerging countries witnessed a contraction of 2.2%.

THE HOSPITALITY SECTOR:

Hotels, pubs, and restaurants were forced to shut down which led to the loss of billions of U.S dollars.

The apprehension can still be felt among travelers as it is predicted that international tourism would not come to the pre-pandemic levels till 2025.

THE LABOUR SECTOR:

Due to dwindling unemployment levels, the worst impact of the pandemic in terms of financial aspects could be viewed on the labour workforce. In India, there were huge instances of workers committing suicide or either taking up odd jobs to fill up their as well as their families' stomachs.

MNCs AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE:

The restrictions on international trade among countries led to the loss in foreign direct investment in India along with other countries of the world.

The trade deficit was hampered and the multinational organizations were not able to keep up with their parent company located in the other corner of the world.

These dimensions convey the idea of how Covid-19 emerged as a very serious modern-day issue that deprived business growth of the whole world and that of our own country itself.

Let’s pledge as Indians to be the pallbearers of a resolution in the health sector, educating the ignorant about the importance of healthy living with special emphasis on how to tackle such sudden nuances of pandemics and epidemics. Let’s be hopeful to rectify our mistakes. This would certainly make this world a wonderful place to live with fewer worries, fewer anxieties, and diseases. 

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