Freedom Struggle

The problem what a common individual is facing at this moment is his/her confinement to one place for very long now. This has led to the kind of situation which we have seen in Mumbai. It is not only the migrant labourers who are stuck away from home but everyone who so ever is stuck at some place away from their home because of this COVID 19. It is not about the food and money, it is more about the freedom of wandering freely has been taken away from all of us. Many of us must have remembered NCC Camp in our School days. I have attended and my experience was – when I use to attend the Camp only for 10 days in total, but it was very difficult to pass those 10 days. In NCC camp you have a schedule or a routine to follow till the time you are in routine everything was fine. The moment you get out of your routine it becomes difficult to pass your time there. And exactly this is what we all are experiencing wherever we are stuck at present.   

What we have seen in Mumbai after the PM’S address to the nation was very unfortunate. This could have been avoided if authorities have acted swiftly. We should not entirely blame the migrant labourer for this. If you talk to any of those migrant labourer and ask them what you are missing here. They will never say they do not have money or food rather they will say we are away from our family and home this is what we are missing. See who so ever is working as labours in big cities of India have a family at their native place. Psychology is - till the time I have a work even I am earning INR 400 a day only it is all right because I know what would be the evening like when I finish my day. At present what is happening I am not earning any money nor am I able to spend my day as I use to do before lockdown. And this is what leading to this kind of restlessness mentally which we are seeing amongst the people behavior these days.  In my surrounding what my mind is receiving is the news about a Corona disease which does not have any remedy and people are dying as of now. This is how my mind has conditioned and that is the effect which we are seeing on human behavior. This could be one of the main reasons why I want to reach to my family as soon as possible.

These days we are talking a lot about immunity of an individual do we know what is the level of immunity our majority of labour class has? It is 10 times better immunity than an average middle class of the country. How it is possible? It is possible because they are all physical workers and have a very good diet. They all have got stuck at one place where the kind of free food what they are getting irregularly provided by the NGOs or govt. organizations could not able to satisfy their requirement and hunger. First it is not regular neither has it had taste what they like. You have to understand the psychology of this migrant labourers here and you have to be smarter to make them satisfy with their demand. Because you being a manager who have a bigger responsibility to stop COVID 19 from spreading. You as an authority looking at a big picture but me being a lobour my understanding are only about me and my needs. I am convinced that I am not suffering from this disease then why I suffer. We have seen uncivilized behavior from the civilized people as well when they hid their travel history and not reported it to the authorities then why we are expecting this from of responsible behavior from these illiterate migrant labourers.    

There are few questions emerges in my opinion which we should answer first and probably there after we’ll be able to understand this situation perfectly.  Imagine we are all stuck at one place from last 20+days, majority of us do not have a regular routine which we use to have before the lock-down. How long one can watch TV? I know few can watch TV the entire day and I am one of them but still it is acceptable when things are normal. 

Quarantine is house arrest and no one on this planet likes to be confined at one place for very long, this certainly applies also on to any living being. And the present situation of ours is not by choice I am at home it is imposed upon me because of an invisible enemy who is out there looking for innocent life to attack upon. It is very stressful because of this unseen enemy, over movement is being restricted at one place majority of us have lost their jobs as well. It is an uncertain situation which has struck us because of which we could not able to act and react properly and here I am only talking about the literate middle class society of our country. Majority of us don’t have money now because if I will not have any work from where I am going to run my family. What would be the consequences of this  first of all lot of stress will come on to the mind which can lead to suicidal tendency as well it is all about how much stress one can take.  I was reading a news in which a young daughter-in-law committed suicide at her in-law’s place. What was the reason? The reason was she was a newly wedded bride and wanted to go back to her parents place but could not able to go because of this lock-down situation. She was from a middle class family wedded to another middle class family and because she has just arrived at her new home where everything was unfamiliar to her and suddenly her movement got restricted little because of the tradition what we follow and rest because of the lock-down. Mentally she could not able to cope up with this change of her situation and took this extreme step.

In this present situation a “social factor” can play a very important role. How? We can always talk about our concern/problems with our near and dear once inside of our house, and be positive always. It is a difficult time but it’s not  only for us rather entire world is facing tough time it does not mean this will never end. In the past our ancestors have also faced difficult times and came out victorious the same rule will apply to the present situation as well. Just believe in yourself and face it with open mind and heart.

Of course COVID 19 Pandemic is on a killing spree but we should condition ourselves to defeat this pandemic. Do not let your mind suffer rather indulge into positive around you. Believe me you and we all will come out of this successfully.