Social, Political and Eoconomic Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Assam: a Study
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JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 16, 2020 SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND EOCONOMIC IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON ASSAM: A STUDY Mr. Mohan Pathak Research Scholar, Dept. of Political Science, Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh Abstract: The history of the world proved that several numbers of pandemics were emerged in the world from time to time and made a huge impact on the Social, Political, and Economic lives of the entire world community. The Plague, Cholera, Influenza, Malaria, Typhus, and HIV/AIDS were some of destructive pandemics which created a serious threat to the existence of entire human civilization and also highly affected the socio-economic as well as the political life of the people. Covid-19 is a recently developed global pandemic that has resulted in the rise of serious tension and unprecedented challenges among the people of the entire world. The outbreak of COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan city of China in December 2019 and on 11th march 2020 it was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. At present, most of the countries of the world have been severely affected by this pandemic with millions of loss of lives of people across the globe. It has been observed that because of the outbreak of COVID-19, the entire human society is facing lots of different challenges in their socio-political life. The economic sector of most of the countries has been badly affected and political relations among the countries are also gradually deteriorating. Therefore, this study is an attempt to highlight the major impacts of the Covid-19 on social, political, and economic sectors of Assam. Key Words: Covid-19, Social, Political, Economic and Assam Introduction Pandemic is a disease which spread over a wide geographic area of the world and affects a large numbers of the population. It is a global epidemic with high mortality that impacts every aspect of the human life. The history shows that, the world community had suffered several global pandemics from time to time and also witnessed big socio-economic loss. The Plague, Ebola, Cholera, Influenza, Malaria, Typhus, and HIV/AIDS were some of the most destructive pandemics which created a serious threat to existence of entire human civilization and also highly affected the social-economic as well as the political life of the people.Covid-19 is a recently originated global pandemic which led to the rise of serious tension across the world. It is a global challenge posing a serious health crisis in almost every country of the world. The outbreak of Covid- 19 was first identified in Wuhan city of China in December 2019 and on 11th March 2020 it was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (Shoeb, Aslam, Naaz, 2020:361). According to the report of WHO, the Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-COV-2) is the main reason of Covid-19 disease and this virus can transmit through both biotic and abiotic components. The cold, cough, fever and tiredness are some of the common syndromes of Covid-19 disease. It has been seen that the current situation of the entire world is unprecedented; the Covid-19 disease is rapidly spreading across the globe. Almost every territory of the world has been infected by this devastating virus. The advanced countries of the world have also failed to overcome the adverse effects of this pandemic. America, Russia, UK, Spain and Italy have been listed in the list of top ten most Corona virus affected countries (The Indian Express, June 30, 2020). The covid-19 straining the healthcare system of entire world, the medical system of several developed countries are on the verge of collapse. As on 4th July 2020, a total of 10922324 people got contaminated and 523011 people had died across the world and this number is growing rapidly (Reports WHO). The effect of Covid-19 is not only limited to health of the people but also has a huge impact on the socio-political and economic sector of the world. An economic downfall has been noticed in the global economy after outbreak of Covid-19. The preventive policies adopted by the Governments to avoid Covid-19 such as Lockdown, quarantines, social distancing etc. completely stopped the production and consumption activities. Alongside, the international as well as national trades and commerce, air services, railway services and other transports services have also been suspended. The industries, shopping 2840 JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 16, 2020 malls and Educational institutions were also closed for an uncertain period of time. The Tourism, also known as the backbone of global economy, has also been adversely affected by Covid-19, The World Tourism Organization has reported the decline of 58 to 78 percent in world tourism output because of outbreak of Covid-19. Moreover, a drastic change also been observed in the GDP of around 170 developed and developing countries across the globe. It has been predicted that the GDP of most advanced state like America will decline by 2.4 percent (Duffin, 2020). As per the report of IMF, due to Covid-19, the global economy can go below 3 percent and it will be the highest slowdown since the great depression of 1930(Indian Express, May 16, 2020). The Covid-19 has also greatly influenced national and international politics. Because of outbreak Covid-19, the Governments or ruling parties of some countries seems to be highly worried while the Government of other some countries are also using this pandemic as an opportunity for their political gain. Many developed as well as developing countries already declared national health emergency. As per the report of United Nations’ Centre for Civil and Political Rights, 84 countries across the world have declared state emergency in response to this pandemic (Quraishi, 2020).Moreover, it also been seen that the ruling parties of some countries are using the government machineries for political gain by strictly banning mass protest movements. The democratically elected leaders of some countries became autocratic by using their power like emergency. It is reported by Reporters without Borders, 38 countries around the world restricted the freedom of the Press, the reporters are facing verbal attacks in USA and Brazil, and moreover some journalists have been arrested in Algeria, Jordan and Zimbabwe (Reports of Reporters without borders). The Covid-19 also impacted the elections of various countries across the world. The International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) has recorded that 61countries and 8 territories have postponed their elections and a total of 106 elections have been postponed because of Covid-19 (Reports of IFES, 17th June 2020). The outbreak of Covid-19 created a serious tension in the international politics also. Several obstacles have been arisen in the international relations of the countries after wide spread of this deadly virus. A war like situation has been seen between America and China. The United States of America criticized the Chinese Government and also blamed it for the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, despite frequent request of Chinese Government, the president of America Donald Trump called Corona Virus as Chinese virus and also threatened to seek compensation for the damage caused by this pandemic (Jhony, 2020).The Chinese Government strongly opposed the allegation imposed by President Donald Trump and in turn, blamed America for outbreak of this pandemic. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly claimed that the American military is responsible for covid-19 outbreak (The Hindu, 9th May 2020).Due to outbreak of this virus; the China has faced criticism from several countries across the world apart from America such as Brazil, Australia, France, etc. The Brazil Congress man Eduardo Bolsonaro says that “The blame of the global corona virus pandemic has a name and sure name: the Chinese Communist Party” (Phillips, 2020). After outbreak of Covid-19, the World Health Organization, an important organ of United Nations, is also facing a lot of challenges. The several countries across the globe are raising questions on the impartiality of the WHO. The President of USA Donald Trump says that WHO is not an impartial international agency, he accused WHO for covering China, whom he blames for outbreak of Corona virus. Further, Trump also threatened WHO to permanently cut off the UAS’s financial contribution to WHO (VOA news, 19th May 2020).The Tendros Adhanom, Director of WHO claimed that he has been facing lots of challenges after outbreak of this deadly virus. Further he said that he had faced severe discrimination and racial slurs from various parts of the world and also received death threat (Kaur, 2020). Like the rest of the world, India too is not free from the affects of this deadly virus. However, India is less affected compared to other currently affected nations as the precise principles taken by the Government at right time saved the India from being more affected. As on 8th July 2020 India’s Covid-19 cases reached 7, 42,417 including 20,642 fatalities, 2, 64,944 active cases and 4, 56,831 recoveries (Report of MHFW, Govt. of India). The Government of India has introduced various preventive measures to save the life of the people from Covid-19, such as quarantine, social distancing, compulsory of wearing mask etc. Moreover, the Government also handed over relief funds to poor section of the society and migrant workers who have been hit by the impact of Covid-19. Apart from this the Government also provides free train and quarantine facility to the migrant workers. The Covid-19 badly hit the Indian economy, the growth rate of Indian economy before pandemic was 4.4 percent, but during the period of pandemic it is reached at lowest level that 3.1 percent.