INHE ASIA ** COVID-19 ** Lettre à nos membres continentaux      

 

 

La pandémie du COVID-19 est une crise international qui touche fondamentalement l’organisation de nos sociétés. Les membres de INHE Asia (RIEH Asie), sont fortement interpellés dans leur mission. Cette pandémie traduit un sujet important de l'économie humaine, c'est-à-dire une façon d’organiser la société, d'où qu'elle soit dans le monde, pour relever les enjeux auxquels elle est confrontée. En Inde, le confinement peut provoquer des conséquences terribles sur une économie informelle qui repose sur la mobilité, et risque d’aggraver les profondes inégalités qui divisent le pays. Deux facteurs essentiels s'imposent en Inde : le lien social et le mouvement. Deux facteurs nécessaires à la survie et à la protection. Les ravages de la faim où l'emploi informel est la règle plutôt que l'exception et la faiblesse des infrastructures de santé où la protection sociale reste le privilège d'une minorité, menacent... L'ensemble de INHE Asia  par l'intermédiaire de son coordinateur Asie : L.A. Samy s'adresse à ses membres. Nous vous livrons ses propos...

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

Greetings to you from our INHE-Asia Secretariat!

 

Firstly, we hope that you, your family members, colleagues, partners and friends at your ends are secure and healthy. Please continue to remain safe and take care.

 

The sudden outbreak of the current global pandemic “COVID-19” has posed an unprecedented catastrophe to all of us. You may be aware that none of us were really prepared to deal with the rapid developments of last couple of months, which turned out to be extremely precarious, tumbling the whole world upside down, and spiralling various uncertainties for the future.

 

It is important now that our INHE members and partners all over the world continue to be critically pro-active at this crucial moment of history to protect the wellness of our societies and humanity at large.

 

At the global level, the Corona virus is said to have already infected nearly 3,084,000 people, causing around 212,500 deaths, affecting more than 210 countries/territories and damaging lives of humans to inconceivable levels. The real devastation, both in terms of loss of human lives, material damages, and economic destruction, are feared to be much more than what is being presently projected, observed, recorded or declared.

 

Duration of the absence of remedies to the deep-seated anxieties around the world is bound to have severe impacts on the collective uneasiness, mental health and well-being of the world. The extent of suffering is anticipated to touch historic levels though the exact damage will depend on severity, intensity and the duration of the pandemic.

 

We all have realized already (and some are still realizing) the critical role and the political economy of sudden lock-downs. For the poor, the weak, the vulnerable and the marginalized -- the lock-downs have become a double-edged knife as opportunities for precaution and preparedness were not made available to them. They are virtually in crossroads, stranded in the margins and the edges of lives. Many of us in several territories are engaged in arranging relief materials, essential food supplies, and other emergency needs to them.

 

Some territories across the world however, are being appreciated to have handled the emergency far better than several others. There may be a number of factors that have played significant role in better management or governance of the crisis situation. The governance primarily pertains to containing number of cases, providing efficient medical services to the infected persons, enforcement of medical advisories, ensuring physical distancing, sensitizing people about the predicament and preventive health and hygiene etc.

 

The better management can also be observed in the context of the backgrounds of their socio-political organisations, population size, density, existing health infrastructure and also quick ramping up of the health facilities. However, the pandemic has several other socio-economic dimensions as well, apart from the above mentioned ones based on medical factors.

 

An analysis of the socio-economic dimensions can further improve and enhance our INHE understanding on the possible future responses at global, regional and sub-regional levels.

 

These socio-economic insights can throw greater light on dynamics of spread and transmission, public health response, communication and sensitization about the problem, and required health and hygiene practices, social and community response to quarantine, screening and testing, societal understanding of the disease and related risks, health seeking behaviour, healthcare infrastructure, preventive measures, etc, etc....

 

Further, the general preparedness and interventions, political will, livelihood and economic repercussions of such pandemic, social trust, global recession, decelerating growth and development, industrial revival, recovery on external and internal trade fronts, employment implications, issues related to migrant labourers and unorganised sector workers, transformations in global economic and political order, changes in behaviour and thinking, experiences of people especially the sufferers, access to social protection, environmental concerns, geo-cultural dimensions, and so on.... also could provided critical insights to our future collaborative responses from the global INHE fraternity.

 

To begin with, we as INHE-Asia need to analyse the problems faced by the common people at our local levels in coping with the current crisis, particularly the poor and weak. So we from the INHE-Asia Secretariat humbly request a brief analysis note now and a detailed analysis report later on this issue from your territories on various interventions. This would also be uploaded in our INHE/RIEH website (www.rieh.org). Some visual images in this context would also be helpful.

 

We completely understand that you and your teams (like most of us) must be totally involved with various emergency relief activities at local levels. However, it is simultaneously crucial and pertinent to harness the innovative responses / traditional coping mechanisms evolved from the grassroots communities in the course of the pandemic onslaught. You may already be aware that the ‘human economy’ perspective anchors itself on the indigenous ways communities organises and governs themselves in a particular territory through critical interventions and collective actions. Our analysis must be carried out in a scientific and systematic manner in the contexts of the ‘human economy’ perspectives.

 

The evidence based action-research analysis on socio-economic dimensions could enrich the understanding of our INHE fraternity to take more informed decisions and respond efficiently to such situations. The analysis should at least essentially reflect the three axis of human economy (each person, the whole person, and all persons), i.e., the process of allowing everyone to equitably meet their material, emotional, socio-cultural and spiritual needs, in solidarity with the participation of everyone, while maintaining the balances of our nature.

 

Such analysis eventually would empower us to realign ourselves to new realities, work-out the renewed plans of actions, and fresh interventions in our respective territories. It would guide us into what could be done in our territories after containment of the pandemic crisis, and to address the problems it has accentuated in the respective societies.

 

Take Care all of you..... Please continue to remain safe and fearless.... And let us not forget that ‘democracy’ is ultimately a system of social relationships of everyone with everybody else that respects the twin principles of equality and individual autonomy, so that everyone becomes responsible to everyone else without the use of threat, fear, and power. If there are characteristics of our society and governance which make us undemocratic, this current crisis should be converted into an opportunity to resolve it and strengthen the well-being of our people.

 

Looking forward to hear from you soon....

In Solidarity,

S. Babu & L.A. Samy

(INHE-Asia Secretariat)

24/04/2020