It started raining at 2 P.M. I opened my window. A fresh breeze with tiny drops of rain might help me become elated....
INTROSPECTION
“You need to stop coming here. You are a threat to yourself and your family. You are also putting your community in danger.”
Saying that, I slammed the window shut. It was 7 A.M. I was frustrated. This was day 14 of lockdown and this beggar had been coming and knocking at my door for a week now. She was a new one; I had never seen her around the street before. Fuming, I went back to bed to catch up on sleep.
It started raining at 2 P.M. I opened my window. A fresh breeze with tiny drops of rain might help me become elated, I thought. As I peered out, smiling to myself because the wind was teeming with the smell of wet mud, I saw her again. She was sitting on two bricks under the shade of my porch, protecting herself from the rain. I wanted to snap at her. But the fantastic weather had actually elevated my mood a little. I called out and asked her why she was sitting in the rain.
She looked directly in my eyes. I could see her eyes watering up. And that water was not rain.
“I have nothing at home to give to the kids. If I go now, they’ll ask for lunch. I do not beg as a regular, I am sorry that I upset you. I worked as a seamstress, but people have stopped giving clothes to sew and I did not know what else to do.”
Saying this she left and walked away. I kept calling her back but she paraded through the rain, proving my gut-wrenching feeling that she had felt extremely humiliated telling that story. I wept by the window in silence.
Being a third world country that went through the worst economic meltdown in history, in 2019, Pakistan faces two challenges today. COVID-19 and hunger. It is true for many countries, yes. But being a healthcare provider in Pakistan forces me to present to you a snapshot of our reality.
Poverty has always been our problem. It leads to crime. It leads to corruption. It leads to all the vices imaginable. And now, more than ever, the monsters of poverty and hunger have allied with the demon that is COVID-19.
The story of Corona virus in Pakistan began when visitors came from the affected countries. But the story is being carried on by locals, some rich, some poor. Most of these locals rely on daily wages for bringing food to the table. They do not have a nice, little lump of savings in their bank accounts that could provide them any relief in these unprecedented times.
Why are poverty and hunger public health issues? Because, they act as vectors and carriers for the disease. You can find people who disobey the lockdown standard operating procedures. You can put armed forces outside worship places, but you can only do so much. You cannot arrest each and every person who is out there begging or trying to get some bucks. Our ventilators are already numbered. We failed to provide a ventilator to a doctor in Karachi, few days ago. We cannot make our jail cells run out too, can we?
When you have homeless, hungry and poor people running down the streets, your entire community is in the red zone. We have been talking about flattening the curve by enforcing social distancing. But we need to hit the most vulnerable zone now. The government is trying, the philanthropists are trying, but we need to do more. We need to ensure that a reasonable amount of food supplies is provided to everyone living below minimum wages. We need to make homeless shelters as fast as we are building field hospitals. Homeless shelters that are not just dumping centers for people we deem dangerous. Homeless shelters that have decent social distancing and isolation arrangements with proper healthcare services and security. We need to start paying our household help more than their salary before the lockdown. We need to share what we have on our tables. Trying to cling on to our two apples instead of giving one to a poor man is going to lead to the death of us all. Cut down on unnecessary expenses. Do not, I repeat, do not splurge on those exciting deals that are popping up every now and then on social media. Yes, you deserve self-care. Yes, you deserve to buy yourself something pretty, too, in these times of extreme stress, anxiety and uncertainty. But take our advice, as doctors and your well-wishers, it is high time that you change your perspective. Try a little to live off the adrenaline rush that comes from giving away that online-shopping-money to a needy seamstress. It might create a ripple effect and lead to actually flattening the curve. Try, that’s all we ask.
“Why did you go outside in this pandemic, Sir? When you knew this could happen? Don't you love your family?' I asked, very gently but with a slight frustration in my heart, an elderly man while I was adjusting an oxygen mask on his nose and mouth. He had presented to the emergency room with a history of asthma and was trying with all his energy to pull some air into his lungs. His muscular built showed that he could either be an athlete or a labourer. The callouses on his hands pointed towards the latter. Fever and cough from the last two days had started to take a toll on his body. “Doctor, would you be willing to see your kids die of hunger or of Corona? If Corona gets us, we might get some food in the field hospitals. If hunger gets us, each of one us will watch the other one rot and die in agony.”
I wept silently as I arranged for vials for his blood samples.
