New Delhi: Aristotle said 'Man is by nature a social animal'. All humans are. Therefore social distancing seems to be against our nature. This is one of the key factors along with larger social contexts such as place of residence, type of housing, income and livelihood etc that makes social distancing a challenge to practice in the time of crisis such as COVID-19 pandemic. However, in the absence of any vaccines and treatment in sight soon for the pandemic only social and behavioural interventions such as social distancing and hand hygiene are effective prevention measures. Lessons from history indicate that social distancing works. It was effective during 1918 Spanish flu outbreak. Many countries across the world are implementing social distancing as an important measure to stop the spread of COVID-19.
What is social distance: It means maintaining a physical distance between people thereby minimizing spread of illness. The word social distance is a misnomer as it may convey breaking social contacts; or to reinforce discrimination based on social status. Therefore WHO is discouraging the use of the word social distancing and promotes the use of the phrase ‘physical distancing’
How it is practiced: physical distancing is enforced in times of pandemic by asking people to remain home, avoid mass gatherings and maintain a physical distance of 3 feet to 6 feet from each other. Most governments have closed Mass transport systems, public spaces, and all institutions barring essential services and encourage people to work from home to create enabling environment for people to practice physical distancing.
How does it help:
Physical distancing helps at many levels-
1. Reduce chance of infection among the high-risk groups such as elderly population with co-morbid conditions and lower immunity.
2. It slows down the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic stages. India is currently in stage two which means that the virus is being transmitted locally. In this stage, the source and the trajectory of infection can be tracked. Physical distancing is critical to prevent the pandemic progression to stage 3, community transmission which means that the virus is now circulating in the community and it can lead to massive surge in the number of people infected and affected.
3. Physical distancing will help in decreasing the number of cases there by flattening the curve which means that the health care systems are protected from being overloaded.
The idea of social distance brings forth many other associated social phenomenon and concepts that are to be considered to contextualize physical distancing efforts: Social bonding in times of social distancing is possible. Technology such as video calls could be very helpful stay connected and support each other in time of social isolation. It is important to communicate regularly with vulnerable elderly population to ensure their well being.
Social good: Traditionally we value the concept of social good and thrive on strong social relations. It’s therefore important to revisit and reiterate these things to put community welfare as a priority in times of physical distance. Community participation and volunteerism promoted during the times of pandemics will result in social solidarity. It is an important that one takes care of self and contributes to the care of others. All of us, including healthy, young and protected have a role to play. Let’s be mindful of the vulnerable in the community.
Social stigma is observed in most of the pandemics where a particular community or people who have been in the contact with virus. It is important to recognize that social stigma will lead to non-disclosure of symptoms and non-compliance with preventive measure. Therefore any intervention should minimize the chances of stigmatisation of affected people. Altering Social norms play a key role in the times of physical distancing. Practices such as shaking hands, hugging are discouraged and exchanging greetings through Namaste and salaam is promoted.
Social justice: for any social and public health intervention to succeed and sustain, it is important to ensure that it is framed in the context of principles of social justice. Social justice in simple terms is about fair disbursement of common benefits and sharing of common burdens. In the context of public health, it translates to advancing human well being and to achieve that ensuring that the needs of most disadvantaged are taken care. Pandemics such as COVID-19 accentuate Social suffering amongst the vulnerable groups of the society.
Apart from aggravating the health vulnerability of the poor and marginalized, interventions for minimizing physical distance lead to lockdown resulting economic vulnerability. Unless specific social security measures for the poor and vulnerable such as daily wagers, workers from the unorganized sector, private sector, children and elderly are designed it will have a damning impact on their health and wellbeing. It is time for promoting social Innovations in service delivery in the context of lockdowns. Such crisis could provide an opportunity to invest in creative service design keeping the end user in mind and change the way the government services are delivered. Innovations in technology could be put to use for providing health and welfare services proactively at the doorstep. Corporates as a part of their Social responsibility can contribute to the government efforts to contain the pandemic by ramping up the production and subsidizing protective goods such as soaps and sanitizers, basic medicines, medical equipment etc. They can also contribute by setting up a pot of emergency funds to compliment government funds to promote public health interventions.
Finally while we tide over this crisis, it is important to plan ahead and ensure that we are prepared to deal with such pandemics which seem to occur more frequently for various reasons. Addressing Social determinants is critical to strengthen community resilience to such pandemics. There should be holistic approach to strengthen the health and wellbeing of the populations. Social scientists therefore have an important role to play in the strengthening public health in India.
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