Lockdown and Covid-19 shook up the entire community in India. All economic activities were put on halt, bringing huge economic losses and pushed back a lot below the poverty line.
To address these issues, Rural Management Programme of Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi organized Webinar on “Impact of Covid-19: A Holistic Analysis” on 3rd Sept 2020. The webinar was moderated by Dr. K.K Bhagat, Professor RM Programme, where he started off by giving a background on holistic framework, economic, cultural and social issues wherein he briefed the idea of sociologists like Karl Marx and also introduced our panelists of the session.
Dr. Himadri Sinha, Professor and Head of Programme, Rural Management, XISS highlighted the idea of Covid-19 and introspection of common people. He talked about the skewed nature of Covid-19, unemployment rate, migrant laborers, GDP, economic situation before Covid-19 and the idea of mono causation. He questioned various aspects such as the communal nature of Covid-19, social taboo, vaccine war, and the post Covid scenario. He also questioned if the concept of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ a new concept? He also discussed that how Covid has improved family bonds concluding by reading a heart filled poem.
The second speaker, Dr. M.J. Xavier, Chairperson, Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA) took through the notion of Winners and losers. He talked about how several industries came up with flying colors and some were hit hard and forced to shut. He also focused on the job losses, plights of poor and middle class families, increase in number of suicides, crime rate, socio-economic impact on rural areas etc. The gap between the rich and poor has widened. He also shared the idea that how Covid is a blessing in disguise in many aspects and talked about its healing nature such as, anti-consumerism, value seeking, brushing up the skills and will be more rooted. He ignited the minds with positive aspects of Covid and how we can turn this challenge to a great opportunity.
The third speaker, Mr Sujeet Ranjan, Executive director, The Coalition for Food and Nutrition, highlighted the Nutritional Impact of COVID 19 Pandemic. He shared his thoughts on the existing challenges where 50% children are malnourished, under-weight, are stunted based on NFHS-3 and NFHS-4 data. He also presented the Global Nutrition Report and how this scenario can increase in near future. He enlightened with his ideas about the role of CSOs and a slogan “Sahi Poshan Desh Roshan”.
The fourth speaker, Prof. Susan Vishwananthan, School of Social Science, JNU started off with the demographic assumptions of Covid-19 and the preventives measures. She talked about the some of the day to day practices which we often ignore and emphasized on health, education, immunity, agriculture and learning from past to move ahead. She also pointed the importance of relationship between scientists and local community.
The fifth speaker of the session, Dr. Vijayalakshmi Brara, Associate Professor, Centre for Manipur Studies, Manipur University. She talked about the repercussions that Covid has created in our society and its impact on various sections of the society. She focused on increase in domestic violence and school dropouts. She suggested to bring happiness models and to think about the thread of development.
The last speaker, Prof. Harishwar Dayal, Director in Chief, Centre for Fiscal Studies, Government of Jharkhand shared his ideas on Effect of Covid-19 on Indian Economy. He briefly described its impact on GDP, lob losses and economic loss.
The ruminated session with approximately 145 participants from different backgrounds, ended up with curious question and answer session moderated by Dr. Rajshree Verma, Associate Professor, Rural Management Programme, XISS. The session ended with warm vote of thanks to panelist thanking them for their time and valuable views. The session was organized by PRAKRITI- The students’ club of Rural management Programme, XISS, Ranchi.