Moameren Pongen and Dr Chubakumzuk Jamir
Amidst rising cases of COVID-19 in India and the chaos that followed due to the sudden announcement of nation-wide lockdown, Nagaland with limited resources was able to handle the pandemic to some extent. One of the reason for the proper management of lockdown in the context of balancing the dilemma of “Protecting lives and providing livelihood” was due to the positive role played by influential and powerful civil societies. From spreading awareness to raising funds, distributing masks and ration and implementation of states directives, civil societies were actively at the forefront along with the state government officials. One can cite the report of Nagaland Express where a group of people left food packages at designated areas in Kohima for the needy. Similarly, some ward leaders under Dimapur district collected names of their members who were daily wage earners and arranged food and other commodities to help them cope with the loss of their earnings. Religious Christian institutions, which have a great influence in the Naga society, also came to the fore in providing support to government in tackling the crisis by donating cash towards the COVID-19 relief fund and also offered the church premises to be utilized as quarantine center for civilians and frontline workers. Apart from religious institution various secular organizations came to aid the needy, like the Dimapur District Autorickshaw Drivers Union which distributed essential commodities donated by well-wishers. The union also provided ambulance service to those in need.
The role of civil society became crucial in the second wave as compared to the 1st wave there was high positive rate of COVID-19 cases and increase in death rate which left the state government with no option but to impose lockdown. The lockdown imposition did not affect the salaried class especially employees under government services as they were getting their regular salary and less likely to be laid off from their job. However decisions which were made at the “war room” affected the business community, taxi/autorickshaw drivers and the daily wage earners the most. The pandemic also hit young entrepreneur’s start up business since it halted their regular business which put some of them in debt as some took loan from banks and private lenders to start their business and some lost their jobs. Like most of the states in India,Nagaland government did not had proper policy in place to take care of the economically weaker section of the society who were the worst hit not only by COVID-19 pandemic but also from the subsequent rules made by the government to contain the virus. However the situation of helplessness and chaos that was seen in some states was not seen in Nagaland mainly due to the active role of the civil societies. One of the positive aspect about the civil societies in Nagaland is that most of the civil societies were citizens funded and not affiliated to any political parties. Almost all the civil society came forward to help the needy on humanitarian ground.
The pandemic greatly exposed the systemic flaws and brought on the surface the drastic inequality in our society. The privileged minority were able to isolate themselves and work from home without worrying about their future income. However majority of the population were affected by lockdown rules and other restrictions. The worst sufferers being the marginalized and poorest populations who depended on everyday labour to set food on the table. It was in such a scenario that civil societies came to the rescue and provided relief to them within their own respective locality. The role of civil societies of Nagaland was imperative in the proper handling of the crisis by the state government. In fact more than the state government it was the civil societies who were at the forefront in providing relief to vulnerable section of the society.
Article submitted by Moameren Pongen, Research scholar, Department of Political Science, Nagaland University and Dr Chubakumzuk Jamir Assistant Professor, Department of Economic Yingli College, Longleng
(Full research article published in Journal of Humanities and Education Development)
