Powering the post-Covid economy

To tackle the impacts of Covid-29, on March 24, the Centre announced a ₹1,500-crore package for the health sector. Prime Minister Modi said the package will be primarily used for procuring gloves, masks, personal protective equipment, and ventilators.

Each Covid-19 patient is cared for by a team of four: a doctor, a nurse, paramedical staff and an attender. If we take into account three shifts (of eight hours each) for each staff, we require 12 PPE kits per patient every day. This will translate to a minimum of 12 lakh PPE kits per day to care for one lakh patients. On average, a Covid patient spends about 10 days in the hospital. Therefore, we will need about 120 lakh PPE kits. The situation is no different for masks. We also need to increase the number of ventilators available.

On March 26, the Finance Minister announced another package, which includes an insurance scheme of ₹50 lakh for health workers — from ASHA workers to doctors. But it is not clear if the benefits will be extended to health workers outside the government sector, such as the self-employed professionals and the staff of private hospitals. The government should also make it clear if the medical treatment of health workers infected by Covid are covered under the scheme.

More funds needed

While the provisions for women, widows, and differently-abled persons are welcome, we need to also increase the amount set aside for such purposes. We must also ensure that differently-abled patients are given priority in treatment. The government should also direct special attention to the challenges faced by migrant labourers and returning non-resident Indians (NRIs). In the agricultural sector, writing off the debts of farmers will provide relief. The government should also ask corporates to contribute a share of their profit in the last 10 years.

But mere appropriation of funds is not enough. The economic recession is systemic. We should roll out a national programme for value generation through labour realisation instead of capital realisation. In India, where agriculture accounts for 50 per cent of the labour force, existing petty production — which is struggling to sustain — needs to be organised through producing cooperatives. This can help convert a large number of farmers and workers into modern workers, helping them educate children and avail quality healthcare.

When we talk about Kerala's health and education indicators — which helped the State tackle Covid-19 efficiently — we should not forget the role land reforms played in it. So, the next step here is organising agrarian producer cooperatives. The other States can directly go to this stage now.

Such measures will help us check three key problems. First, the national hazard of strangulating market pressures that arise out of the penetration and amalgamation of finance capital. Second, the rise of unemployment due to agrarian distress and de-industrialisation owing to the dilution of labour laws and investments. And, third, the social alienation due to unemployment and depletion of income from agrarian distress and other manifestation of market pressure and its development into communalism and casteism.

The public sector will have to work in tandem to support the workers and peasants in producer cooperatives. This will develop into the formation of giant nationwide consortium of PSUs and cooperatives, which will be the keel of the giant vessel of production and marketing. And this grand force of social labour can enact labour realisation in its most democratic way.

The writer is the former president of Kerala chapter of the Indian Medical Association

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