Namrata Sharma

Once the lockdown was lifted in Nepal, the cases of coronavirus infections have increased significantly. There are several reports which highlight the fact that the government clearly lacks sufficient facilities to treat the people who are infected. The government is overwhelmed with the coronavirus cases and has requested private clinics and hospitals to make arrangements for the treatment of the infected. It faces a big challenge as to what it can do to prevent the pandemic from going out of hand.

Infections rising
The shops and business centres had started operations following the lifting of the initial lockdown. As the number of infections started increasing, many pockets of infected areas have once again been gradually sealed. New Road, the business hub of Kathmandu, now looks deserted after the detection of some infections there.
There are several notices, rules and regulations being issued by Nepal government, but the spread of the coronavirus is still rising. In Birgunj, which is one of the industrial centres of the country, the cases of infection have increased rapidly. The country has a very small-scale industrial sector as compared to its neighboring countries such as India and China. As more and more skilled labourers come to work in the factories in bordering cities such as Birgunj, Biratnagar and Nepalgunj through the open border with India, the number of COVID-19 cases have risen. There have been cases where the industrialists have been arrested for smuggling of skilled labourers from India in their trucks and other vehicles so as to resume production and revive the industry despite the government’s decision to put a ban on the movement of people across the border.
Although the owners of industries and factories and the workers are held responsible for the spread of the coronavirus, they deserve sympathies. Livelihood means are very important to saving lives just as preventing a pandemic and deaths caused by it. In a desperate situation, people have to cross borders to earn small amounts of money to provide for their families. Countries should head towards a system where work, livelihood, education and health services are provided equally to all citizens so that no one has to put their lives and the lives of their workers at risk. Prevention of reinfections after lockdown remains crucial but it is putting a big drain to the industries and their workers in a country like Nepal.
Although certain sectors are now trying to kick-start the economy, the workforce and the workplace are far from normal. Both the raw materials and skilled workers are mostly imported to Nepal from India and China. No matter how many regulations Nepal government may implement, it is very difficult not to import the virus with the raw materials and workers and the means of transportation moving in and out of the country. This is not entirely just the fault of the industry owners and the workers involved with them. This is also not the fault of Nepal government.
As the world is grappling with the situation, a clear message comes out: Is capitalism unable to deal effectively with pandemics? In this regard, capitalism is certainly not the right system to handle pandemics. Time has now come for philosophers, leaders, economists, political scientists and others to come out and look into ways of developing appropriate systems which can best deal with pandemics throughout the world so that people have access to food, shelter, education, health facilities and livelihood opportunities irrespective of their gender, colour, class, caste, religion or social status. The inequalities created by the capitalist open market system seem to be a failure when the world faces pandemics like COVID-19. Although it is a fact that COVID-19 affects all, those who are economically poor are at higher risk of getting infected. The virus disease has affected both the workers of industries as well as CEOs. Access to health facilities by these two different groups could be completely different while treating health hazards before the pandemic, but now to most extent it is the same. Precaution for all is also the same. So the divide created by a capitalist system needs to be abolished in order to provide equal treatment for all so that the impact of the spreading of the virus can be minimised.
Industries are required to enforce stringent health precautions, such as sanitising their premises and providing workers with sanitisers or facilities to wash hands with soap and water. They must safeguard the safety of their workforce with the use of face masks and the implementation of other safety measure, such as regular risk assessments in the workplace. To prevent the spread of the virus, there cannot be different standards for different levels of staff based on their salary and lifestyle.

Extra burden
All of these requirements place an extra burden of responsibility on the industries. These responsibilities require professional monitoring and supervision. Are our industries and the government well equipped to do so? An in-depth set of protocols to assist employers is the need of the hour. The business owners should be helped to develop a system of identifying those employees who are at a greater risk of COVID-19 contamination. These are the people whose immune systems are weakened. They may include pregnant women, elderly persons and disabled. 
The situation at hand indicates clearly that the future sustainability lies in developing a system that gives equal value to each human being so they can live as equal global citizens.

(Namrata Sharma is a senior journalist and women rights and can be reached at namrata1964@yahoo.com Twitter handle: NamrataSharmaP)