Before moving on to the practical problems of maintaining social distancing, we must first mention the basic characteristics of the indigenous people: that they are one of the most hospitable lots in the world, always loving company in abundance and celebrations on all possible occasions, as in a family of four birthdays of all members plus anniversaries / others will preferably be celebrated with friends and relatives, in addition to all other social occasions, including large weddings and even funerals; all religious festivals, while it is said that people can have more than twelve occasions in a twelve-month year, large community festivals and home worship; all cultural festivals in which all communities of all religions can participate; gatherings and parties in hotels for any reason under the sun; and so on. Although the old joint family system is no longer in vogue, all households love to entertain guests on all of the above-mentioned occasions and more. It’s no wonder police in almost every city have to raid hotels for secret parties even during tight closings, not to mention underground parties within the four walls that even the best police force in any country could meddle with. . And generally, in India, except for the super-rich, everyone else who has small congested flats. Almost no one would like to think about staying away from each other in the way of restrictive social distancing in these matters. Replacing the ‘handshake’ with the very Indian ‘Namasker’ is being reduced to a myth under these conditions.
While the practical problems of maintaining social distancing are seen primarily in cities and towns, the aforementioned traits are common to all people in urban and rural areas. A friend from a village recently told me that under COVID-19 protocols, a household in the village decided to restrict marriage to only a few relatives. All the villagers were immediately terribly offended and demanded to be invited at all costs. It is a normal custom in any household in an Indian village to invite the entire village to a marriage ceremony under any circumstances; otherwise, the household faces the stigma of a social boycott. We should also mention here that a traditional marriage in India can last up to five days and the funeral ceremony after the unfortunate death of a family member can last 13 days, with visitors and relatives, either celebrating or in mourning, adorning the family every day of affairs.
Obviously, while talking about the practical problems, the main one that arises is the increase in the population of the country, which leads to the maximum possible population density in almost all towns and cities, particularly in metropolitan areas such as Mumbai and Kolkata. . Once out of your home, which is also likely to be very dense with generous family members in sweltering confines, you can’t help but brush up against people coming and passing you in small lanes or narrow sidewalks of highways / wider roads or in parks or in shopping malls or in movie theater complexes or anywhere. Although he would very much like to observe social distancing, he cannot be so ruthless as to elbow his elbows and throw his fellow inhabitants out of his way. The growing population makes urban infrastructure inadequate and due to traffic jams, people have to push each other at every pedestrian crossing. Then the rising motorcyclists make life miserable for pedestrians by turning them into tight-knit groups. The situation is so dire on local trains in some big cities that the respective governments are hesitant to open the trains for everyone, even long after the closures have been effectively lifted.
We especially mention here the local markets and shops. Markets in most towns and cities, even weekly or daily towns, are situated on narrow lanes or on poorly maintained concrete blocks that allow for row upon row of vendors / vendors with very narrow passages in between, so that squeezing through buying customers from both sides is very difficult without nudges and nudges. When markets are allowed to open for a few hours during closings, the rush is always so intense that it makes social distancing the joke of the pandemic era. Similarly, freestanding stores (funny to call it that) are typically arranged in rows on either side of roads / lanes / expressways, and only 3-4 people in front of a particular store can turn it into a crowd, because there are no there is enough room in front, and if one prefers to stand behind an already engaged customer, they run the risk of being knocked over by constantly moving vehicles / bikes / cars in both directions. In some typically narrow lanes of Kolkata, vehicles threaten to hit stores, without thinking about the customers in front. And the constant honking of automatic bikes / cars / rickshaws and jingling of rickshaws / bikes make people messy and social distancing would be the last thought on their minds.
The Indian government and all state governments are well aware of these technical impossibilities and cannot afford to be less lenient so that the political parties that rule the governments lose popularity. They are still urged to maintain social distancing; restricting entry to temples / mosques / shopping centers, but in that case crowds form at the entrance gates and, for the same reason as the moving traffic, they cannot spread out on the streets; they urge people to celebrate any occasion with a fixed number of guests, but no country can have such a large police force that it can monitor every nook and corner; they make the buses run at half capacity, but because of that, crowds overflow at bus stops and again, who can effectively control each passing bus as to how many passengers are inside; In railways and airlines, intermediate seats / deliveries are not marked in a cross shape to avoid loss of income, and railways that make rules such as no pantry cars or blankets are provided on trains act only to the disadvantage of passengers are already at high risk of infection.
The biggest religious festivals are the biggest concerns of the political parties that govern governments, because they cannot afford to hurt the feelings of various communities that are eventually their voters, and for this reason there have always been regular rapes, even during the confinements (the devotees , well educated or not, they believe that once in the service of the gods no virus dares to touch them). How could you realistically think of forcing social distancing at a festival that millions of devotees participate in on a daily basis? Positively speaking, for a change, concerned governments sometimes canceled large pan-Indian festivals. But how can you avoid mentioning governments that decided to hold elections when ideally they should have imposed closures / restrictions, and we all know how devastating the second wave of COVID-19 turned out to be?
So social distancing as a highly desired norm only exists in preaching and in the newspapers; it cannot actually be observed except in high-level lectures held in large enriched auditoriums. No government in India is bold enough to decide to reopen schools / universities that have been closed for more than 17 months for the same reasons, but there is not enough room to accommodate and do justice to the large number of students. Masks, hand hygiene and vaccination are emerging as the most effective ways to possibly stem a third wave which, according to the Government of India itself, may rise to prominence at any time in September 2021. Unfortunately, the vaccination campaign The world’s much-publicized ‘biggest’ has yet to be collected to protect the majority of citizens. As the Stoic says, “India is India; whatever happens here is always for the better ”.