#Day 2

Day 2 comes to an end quicker than Day 1. This is our normal now. The people at my city have understood the seriousness, after all it its the 3rd day that people are to stay at home after Janta Curfew and Day 1. Vehicles are hardly seen. Even the morning walkers who I regularly saw are probably walking in their halls, corridors and balconies.

Experts are calling this week as the beginning of the 3rd phase, which seems to be the peak, in simpler words it means the virus has spread and now cases are going to increase due to community spread. Italy is in phase 3, believe me the pics on Twitter bring tears to my eyes. And the numbers, I looked less often than before are disheartening.

As I heard this, My simple: Why not phases of closure in the end of Phase 1/Week 1 when experts realized it is a continuous spreading process? Well, I stopped going to my workplace from 14 March. Am grateful for that. That very day till our PM addressed the nation, I informed many, people reacted it to it as just some common news. People understood and felt that “over there, the situation is bad”. They didn’t see that over there can become over here!

With a large choice of channels, my YouTube feed showed The Print as I looked for Coronavirus news. Appreciate the research done and simple language used to explain Science and politics.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuyRsHZILrU7ZDIAbGASHdA

The Lockdown is the only available solution. It has happened, hopefully better late than not later. I have been talking to relatives, friends, colleagues. All are in complete understanding and are staying at home.

There is the news going around about the telecast of B.R.Choprs’s Ramayan, the famous TV serial on Doordashan. In our days, some women would wear a Dupatta,veil to cover their heads during the telecast out of respect towards the Godliness of the character.

On a personal level, getting a hold of online meeting apps, Skype, zoom, face time and many more. Had heard of these here and there. Now it is over here!

My questions:

1. Why do we wait for Phase 3 when we know Phase 2 causes Phase 3?
2. Why is Italy facing so many casualties?
3. In spite of the Lockdown, essential services, medical fraternity, policemen, media (extra thumbs up to the cameramen for going into the lanes, entrances of hospitals ) the support staff of the Politicians, technical staff (also the ones who developed the war room.), contact mappers and delivery staff are putting in extra hours. Are they just doing a job?
4. Why do Heath works not have sufficient Personal Protective Equipment? (PPE)
5. If volunteers are called in, where are their PPEs?

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Why children may not be receiving education

This is the third in series of #CauseAChatter with the subject being child education.

Education for all is a must. If not, the country suffers under the dark shadows of illiteracy and unlawful activities which hinder the growth of the society. There are multiple reasons why a country may not be able to educate its child population. As I write this blogpost the world is going through a Pandemic struck by Coronavirus, something I didn’t have on my list, but will probably top the list.

The most obvious reasons for children not receiving in developing countries is the Financial deficit of these countries. Factors like lack of schools, poverty, illness or illiterate parents come under this umbrella.

Gender discrimination has been an underlying factor in many countries. It was an unspoken rule earlier that the boy of the house would attend school. We have come way ahead of this but not yet there. Malala has set an example and young women are looking upon her. She is doing her bit for the society.

I recall from the book “Guides to English Literature – Augustan Literature From 1660 to 1789 Edited by Eva Simmons where page 6 says “Women were usually denied formal education in the classics, but sometimes managed to obtain it for themselves”. This was in countries we called Developed now.

The next paragraph shows the growth of women “In mid 16th century only 20 percent of men and 5 percent of women could sign their names; these figures had increased by the mid 17th century to 30 percent and 10 percent respectively; by 1715 they were 45 percent and 25 per cent; but by 1760, 60 percent of men and 40 percent of women were considered “literate”.

Gender bias education has gradually crept its way close to equality. I urge everyone reading this to encourage the people of different strata in the society to send their daughters to school and for higher education also. Drifting a little, I personally know many women who had to leave education for the sake of marriage. That is for another day.

Another reason that children may not be receiving education could be natural disasters with devastating effects on human habitats. The extent of awareness of these disasters has increased. Earlier it would be news soon forgotten to be remembered when another one occurs. Nowadays, with better technology, people in the affected region can be tracked back, atleast in terms of statistics, and we can compare it with the present number.

I clearly agree with poverty being the top reason for children not receiving child education. There are NGOs and associations working towards it.

A thought about the people in these associations, I believe that the founder or major decision makers have seen, heard, read or experienced some event about children without education,which has touched their lives, hence are willing to spend time on voluntary activities like these.

My audience surely has access to the internet if you are reading this. Take a moment to think about people who don’t have a computer. It is a basic need now. Dig deep and spare a few seconds to the ones who don’t go to school. Each city or town has a section that we don’t pass through while driving. That is the section that needs help, convincing them is the hurdle we have to cross. We will.

Remember to #CauseAChtter, an initiative by Blogchatter.