Sunday, March 27, 2022

Presenting the Past

 

Around this Republic Day in In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightfully paid tribute and built a theme around the importance of Netaji Bose’s  role in the independence of India.  There was a usual cry from liberal circles. They claimed the Indian right-wing headed by PM, had tried to steal away the legacy of Netaji Bose which to date was royally ignored since Independence.  Liberals circulated a letter they claimed to be written By Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose denouncing Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and right-wing politics. A certain US academic famous for anti-India tirade further tried to muddle the water with visuals showing a photo of the meeting between Bose and Hitler and a photo of Indian PM saluting Bose in a single frame.  Many left-leaning academics and intellectuals also chipped in denouncing Bose’s stance of joining forces with Axis countries. This really was painful. So went back to some references and articles available about what must have transpired between these two great men.   

 

Reading those scholarly articles on the relationship between Bose and Sawarkar, I felt when we look back at history, every action taken by a Historic figure or a single comment had context and chronology.  Bose unarguably was a left-leaning intellectual. It had a definite reason and had valid justifications then.  Bose was with Congress till 1938-39. He might have seen the stance of Savarkar as communal.  What Bose later realized that Savarkar had called for young Indians to enlist in British Army was to get trained so that they could be useful for INA once they defect to Netaji’s INA.  

 

On 21st June 1940, a meeting had taken place between Savarkar and Netaji to explore the possibilities of cooperation between Forward Bloc and Hindu Mahasabha. This meeting which is reported to have taken place in Dadar at Savarkar’s residence as reported in newspapers then and the police records are said to have influenced Netaji.   The above incident is mentioned in the book ‘The Two Great Indians in Japan’ by Yukikazu Sakurasawa, a Japanese author. He mentions -  

"It was the private and personal meeting between Netaji Subhas Babu and Savarkar at Savarkar Sadan Bombay that a definite suggestion was made to Subhas Babu by Savarkar that he should try to leave India and undertake the risk of going over to Germany to organize the Indian forces there fallen in German hands as captives and then with the German help should proceed to Japan to join hands with Sri Rash Behari Bose. To impress this point Savarkarji showed to Subhas Babu a letter from Sri Rash Behari Bose to Savarkarji written just on the eve of Japanese declaration of war."  

The cordial relationship shared by Netaji and Veer Savarkar and the admiration they shared for each other is evident from various instances.  

 

When Savarkar became a free man on June 25, 1937, after remaining confined within Ratnagiri following his release from the Cellular Jail, Subhas Chandra Bose said - "I am extremely pleased with the release of Mr. Savarkar. He has a brilliant future. I wish he participates in National Congress and strengthens the freedom movement."  

 

When Netaji was touring the Andamans as the Supreme Commander of Azad Hind Fauj in September 1943, he paid tributes to those imprisoned in the Cellular Jail. He printed thousands of copies of the Tamil version of Savarkar’s Indian War of Independence of 1857 and distributed them among the public. He also renamed Andaman and Nicobar islands Shaheed and Swaraj Islands.  

In a broadcast on 25 June 1944 on the Azad Hind Radio, Netaji said -  

 

"When due to misguided political whims and lack of vision, almost all the leaders of the Congress party have been decrying the soldiers in the Indian army as mercenaries, it is heartening to know that Veer Savarkar is fearlessly exhorting the youths of India to enlist in the armed forces. These enlisted youths themselves provide us with trained men and soldiers for our INA."  

 

When INA’s war came to an end due to the defeat of Japan in World War II, many Indian soldiers were taken as prisoners of war by the British. Savarkar came out openly in defense of these soldiers. He sent a cable to the then British PM Atlee on 1 December 1945 which read: “In view of the general convention of international treatment dealt out to war prisoners and in view of the very deep discontent aroused in the public mind, which could not be easily appeased I implore apart from any question of right that every Indian under arrest of those war prisoners whether they belong to the Subhas Sainiks or outside of it should be released without any humiliating conditions as an act of grace by declaring a general amnesty.”  

 

In May 1952, Savarkar paid tribute to Netaji by having the bust of Netaji on stage for three days. Hailing Netaji, he said -"Long live deathless Subhas. Victory to the Goddess of freedom."  

Today in hindsight we look at these events in a linear fashion. If these leaders disagreed one must be right and the other must be wrong. In real-time, as these events happened, seemingly contradicting behaviors are possible as situations changed. Thus the academic historic study is important.   

 

When we pit these great men against each other while they might have debated, differed on opinions and ideologies, these leaders had great respect for each other. Today we divide past leaders into ideologies but each statement they made in past has to be studied with dateline, causes, and chronology of events. It is much more difficult today in the days of headlines and controversy-driven public mindscape. Also, today's politicians and their followers have to take a note out of history and respect each other across the spectrum of ideologies rather than bickering and accusations. But ideology-driven debates are difficult in the era of disruptions in parliament. Having said that it's good finally to see that Netaji and his contribution are recognized by a grateful nation.  

  

Sunday, March 20, 2022

No Apologies for Delayed Responses

 

You have own right to choose the response time for any communication be it at work or at play. Devices have connected us 24 by 7 online. But that does not mean you have to respond instantly to everything you have been presented to. Its right time you chose to exercise that right. At first, being reachable all the time felt good. Professionals started using BlackBerries 20 years ago, smartphones followed. Businesses were conducted on the go. People were empowered. But as more people got mobile devices, responding to messages anytime became the norm among co-workers as well as friends and loved ones. The empowerment morphed into an obligation.

If technologies offer you possibility of responding to every communication on the go, it becomes a measuring parameter of dedication of people as workers or devotion as a family member.  Not responding can suggest that they aren’t dedicated enough. Now when people feel they haven’t responded sufficiently quickly, they think they owe their correspondent an apology.

This is not unique to the internet and instant communication. Nineteenth-century letter-writers were constantly apologizing for and explaining their delays when they felt that a socially unacceptable amount of time had passed. But what’s changed in the past 10 to 20 years, with the mass adoption of email and smartphones, is that the “acceptable” window of response time has gotten much smaller. Someone could conceivably apologize for their delay when responding in the afternoon to an email sent that morning.

Is the sin of delaying your response so harmful that you need to render apology.  Idleness or mere appearance of it is considered as a shortcoming  and doing that has its own consequences/  This is especially true at work: Even if being responsive at all hours has no bearing on an employee’s actual productivity, many bosses lazily use it as a proxy for gauging workers’ value.  

Outside work, a delayed response can cause genuine problems too. If your partner texts you “I love you,” responding two days later is not a good idea. In personal communications, a lack of a speedy response risks signaling a lack of care. After all, your phone was right there.

But aside from these potential tricky situations, the consequences of not responding quickly may not be as serious as we fear. It is usually that the recipients of non-urgent after-hours emails tended to overestimate how quickly they needed to reply, and that senders tended to underestimate how stressful those messages were for recipients.

Our expectations for how quickly others expect us to respond are mostly incorrect.  Often, we later realize that actually people were okay if we had taken our time. And yet we go around apologizing to one another constantly for our delays.

More and more of our communication is shifting to email and messaging apps.  We quickly amass a large backlog of messages that are waiting for our reply. Between email, Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Instagram, and many more, there is an almost constant influx of communication that expects our reciprocation. And along with that we feel increasing guilt and dread as well. Worse, the longer we wait, the harder it seems it is to finally sit down and write that response.

When you eventually get around to replying chances are you’ll open your message with something like “Apologies for the delayed response,” or “Sorry I couldn’t get back to you sooner,” or “I’m sorry, I totally overlooked your message till now.”

Skipping the apology is a great filter. In most cases, the only people to take issue with the lack of apology are those who expect you to reply on their schedule without any regard for your time or other commitments. Those who really care about you and appreciate your time likely won’t mind.

So it is a good idea to stop making an apology of our default, reserving one only for cases where we really should have been speedier. As a result, we can feel much more relaxed about our inbox and even experience less dread about replying to “overdue” messages.

So far, no one seems to have been offended by it. Not to mention that in most cases the guilt is probably entirely self-created, and the person we are writing to likely doesn’t even consider our response slow. People may even appreciate people who take some time to reply.

It’s time to redefine what replying “in time” means. Replying at a more moderate pace sets the right expectations. We’re expected to be reachable all the time, without ever questioning whether we really should be (or want to be). By apologizing for a slow response, we just reinforce that behavior.

When someone sends you a message, they are essentially adding a task to your to-do list. You should at least be able to decide by yourself when you want to get to this task you didn’t choose for yourself.

Maybe this is a slightly silly and extreme analogy, but with some people it can almost feel like they come over to your house, invite themselves in at random hours, and expect you to drop everything you’d been doing to have a rambling chat with them. And you don’t stop them. Instead, you apologize because it takes you some time to serve them a hot beverage.

Of course, there’s also the option to ignore or delete messages from our inboxes completely. This might sound harsh, but not everyone who wants us to prioritize our response to them deserves it.

Prioritize unapologetically, and think quality over quantity. Even if they do, our time, energy, and attention are finite. Spending more time on a few messages that are really important and meaningful to us (and the recipient) has a much greater positive impact than spreading ourselves thin and trying to please everyone.

While we may be dealing with the matters of importance but it’s a time to realize that there is nothing ‘super mission-critical’ about what we do despite however badly we ourselves would want it to look like.

 

 

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Health check of the Healthcare

 

There was a post that had gone Viral written by someone whose sister’s son was sent back from his Pre-school in the US saying he came into contact with a Covid infected student and the whole family was advised to undergo a Covid test. She has one of the best insurance in the USA which was costly. They went to the hospital where there was a big queue and were told to come after two days. After two days they stood in the queue for four hours and a very busy nurse asked her to write details. They filled out the form and finally undergo a test where they were told that reports will be sent to them after five to seven days.  CDC has recommended five days of isolation in case of Omicron and they even won’t get a report before that. That’s in the country which spends more than GDP on healthcare. In comparison in India, if someone came in contact with Covid Positive person, they booked the Covid test using an app for the whole family for five which cost only 3750/- for all. The phlebotomist came by 9 Am and reports were available by 4 pm. The government also sent them messages asking them to take care now that the test is negative. Government tracks those who are positive on a daily basis through automated calling and then if they develop symptoms Government asks them to get admitted to the hospital.  And for people who can’t, they send the healthcare workers to take care. In another video, a Polish national has given very positive feedback about her experience of the healthcare system in India while she had Covid.  Nowadays it’s hard to believe anything that is circulated in social media. These may be individual experiences but having seen firsthand systems here, the healthcare system in the US is meant for those who are insured and even then there are limitations especially during Pandemic. But the emphasis on Information systems and mobility has helped Government to be responsive in India. There is an educated pool of partially trained healthcare workers in the Private sector in India. This has reduced costs and helped create sustainable models. During April and May, the Indian government faced flak for not being able to provide healthcare facilities to treat large amounts of patients infected with delta variants. Western Media had insensitively sensationalized the pain of people while focusing on its own political agenda.  But there was hardly any mention of record vaccination or how responsive our healthcare system is dealing with Covid in the second half of 2021. It’s worth taking cognizance by the developed countries as well 

There was a comparative study of various healthcare systems across the world while facing Covid's first wave by the council of foreign research. Health care in the United Kingdom is fully funded and delivered by the government to nearly all people. Some analyses give the country’s National Health Service high ratings for many healthcare metrics, including preventive care, equity, and access. The NHS, paid for mainly by taxes, provides comprehensive coverage, including preventive care, hospital services, pharmaceuticals, and mental health care. The NHS said it would free up tens of thousands of hospital beds by postponing nonemergency procedures and buying space in private hospitals. A London convention center was also quickly repurposed into a makeshift hospital. Additionally, thousands of former health workers were being retrained to assist in the crisis, while specialists in other areas were being redeployed. However, many have raised alarms about a lack of ventilators and protective equipment. The United States, whose health system is a mix of private and public sources, is one of the only high-income countries that has not achieved universal health coverage: around 8.5 percent of the population goes without coverage.  Private insurance, whether employer-based or individually purchased, accounts for two-thirds of the market, while the remaining one-third of people are covered by public insurance plans including Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ programs. Medicaid generally covers vulnerable groups, including low-income families, and Medicare covers people over sixty-five years old and some individuals with disabilities. Americans spend far more on health care than residents of any other OECD country. Individuals pay an average of $10,000   annually, and nearly 17 percent of U.S. GDP was spent on health in 2018. Despite being ranked as the most prepared for a pandemic, the country did not ramp up the capacity in the hospitals or boost the production of medical supplies. The United States reported the most coronavirus cases and deaths in the world. Though testing is free, the cost of treatment varies. Also studied were efficient systems in South Korea and Taiwan as well as controlled economies like Australia and Netherlands. These systems did well but their size and scales are not comparable. These healthcare systems have different models than US and UK and were more efficient.  

Like most countries, India is experiencing a massive surge in Omicron now.  The second wave was driven by the more severe Delta variant with a massive spike in excess deaths from April to June 2021. Although the Delta wave was a dark period, even during this crisis many individuals, from all walks of life, and all over India, had worked hard to make things better in exceptional ways. There were medical professionals who, despite the volume of patients, were managing Covid-19 in an evidence-informed, rational way. There were teams vaccinating entire villages once overwhelmed by hesitancy. There were workers ensuring even the remotest areas had adequate oxygen supply. Lessons from these promising practices could be very valuable right now, as India battles a wave of Omicron cases. There was a task force set by volunteers to document these practices. These bright spots were mainly vaccination drives, volunteer-driven technological impact on telemedicine, Operational excellence and decentralized management like control rooms, and finally Covid Guidelines for testing and treatments.  The western media will not mention these bright spots but we cannot afford to slip our way now. 

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Coviducation

 

I read news somewhere that our courts have dismissed a case against China filed by an advocate who blamed China for Covid and its fallouts in his lawsuit. Courts said it was a frivolous lawsuit bearing no consequence and fined the lawyer. But having acknowledged that the fallout of Covid is enormous the discussions around Covid are inevitable.  Every social media platform is full of debates over Covid origin conspiracy theories, Pro versus Anti Vaccine, Djokovic supporters versus opponents. Every aspect of Covid is under scrutiny. There is 24by7 education about the virus, vaccines, efficacies, testing, treatment, immunity, transmission, mutations available on social media universities. We will soon be graduates on Covid subject.  But one thing has gone rather unnoticed:  Impact of Covid on education itself. Though every household is impacted, the gravity of the situation has not been shared as a concern.

A study by UNICEF, World Bank, and UNESCO, points out that this generation of students now risks losing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or about 14 percent of today’s global GDP, as a result of COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures. The new projection reveals that the impact is more severe than previously thought, and far exceeds the $10 trillion estimates released in 2020. 

In addition, The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery report shows that in low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in Learning Poverty – already 53 percent before the pandemic – could potentially reach 70 percent given the long school closures and the ineffectiveness of remote learning to ensure full learning continuity during school closures.

The COVID-19 crisis brought education systems across the world to a halt. Now after almost two years schools remain closed for millions of children, and others may never return to school. The loss of learning that many children are experiencing is morally unacceptable. And the potential increase of Learning Poverty might have a devastating impact on future productivity, earnings, and well-being for this generation of children and youth, their families, and the world’s economies as per the World Bank report.

Simulations in this study estimated that the school closures resulted in significant learning losses in math and reading. Analysis shows that in some countries, on average, learning losses are proportional to the length of the closures. However, there was great heterogeneity across countries and by subject, students’ socioeconomic status, gender, and grade level.  The estimated learning losses were greater in math than reading and affected younger learners, students from low-income backgrounds, as well as girls disproportionately. Children from low-income households, children with disabilities, and girls were less likely to access remote learning than their peers. This was often due to lack of accessible technologies and the availability of electricity, connectivity, and devicesas well as discrimination and gender norms. Younger students had less access to remote learning and were more affected by learning loss than older students, especially among pre-school-age children in pivotal learning and development stages. The detrimental impact on learning has disproportionately affected the most marginalized or vulnerable. Initial evidence points to larger losses among girls, as they are quickly losing the protection that schools and learning offer to their well-being and life chances.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools across the world, disrupting education for 1.6 billion students at its peak, and exacerbating the gender divide. There were greater learning losses among girls and an increase in their risk of facing child labor, gender-based violence, early marriage, and pregnancy. To stem the scars on this generation, we must reopen schools and keep them open, target outreach to return learners to school, and accelerate learning recovery as recommended by Report.

The report highlights that, to date, less than 3 percent of governments’ stimulus packages have been allocated to education. Much more funding will be needed for immediate learning recovery. The report also notes that while nearly every country in the world offered remote learning opportunities for students, the quality and reach of such initiatives differed – in most cases, they offered, at best, a rather partial substitute for in-person instruction.  

Reopening schools must remain a top urgent priority globally to stem and reverse learning losses. Countries should put in place Learning Recovery Programs with the objective of assuring that students of this generation attain at least the same competencies as the previous generation. Programs must cover three key lines of action to recover learning: 1) consolidating the curriculum; 2) extending instructional time; and 3) improving the efficiency of learning.

To build more resilient education systems for the long-term, countries should consider investing in the enabling environment to unlock the potential of digital learning opportunities for all students. We should reinforce the role of parents, families, and communities in children’s learning. We should ensure that the teachers have support and access to high-quality professional development opportunities. We should increase the share of education in the national budget allocation of stimulus packages.

But these recommendations will only work if local governments in charge of actual policymaking and implementation focus on this problem and its seriousness. This report only talks about basic education; Countries like India should also focus on the impact on higher education with top universities, institutes, and colleges trying to streamline the onboarding and ensuring the quality of education and testing.  We need to create a qualified workforce to be able to support economic recovery.  We need experts to drive policies at Government level for basic and higher educations.  We cannot have inept politicians /bureaucrats handle issues concerning school openings and remote learning /exams and entrance. We have seen how improper handling of lockdown rules across various cities, states create confusion, chaos with ordinary people suffering and paying costs. Pandemic has already created economic uncertainty and severely impacted on the mental health of students due to the digital divide, lack of support, and overwhelming restrictions. These are enormous challenges for students who are at the center of this crisis. Let our governments help with the resolution of issues impacting education during Covid.