Hyderabad: The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is bad news for the world. It has killed thousands of people, left lakhs hospitalised and ruined global economies. India is no exception to these devastating happenings. However, there is a silver lining to this upheaval at least, in the Indian media. For once, the focus has shifted to health. Indian media are vying for space on health and health workers of any category—be it doctors, para medical staff, technicians or even sanitary workers.
Every time, a newspaper dedicates a column to healthcare workers, radio broadcasts a programme on them or television channels sing paeans praising the health cadres, there seems some hope. Hope because health has never been a priority for India, definitely not for the media. Health coverage is mostly event based. As a media professional, having covered public health for more than a decade, one can say that health stories were the most difficult to push in. They competed with advertisements and were the first ones to be pushed out if there was political story or a crime in town. The only time health features prominently in media was when there was a crisis. Crisis meaning deaths or a total collapse of public health system.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and the H1N1 in 2005, Dengue and Chikungunya outbreaks are some of the health-related happenings that hogged the headlines before COVID-19. Even then, the role of healthcare workers was hardly the focus. The stories were about mortalities, morbidities and the healthcare system that had failed the people.
When newspapers started writing on health, it was on lifestyle that graduated to lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Later, a dash of research was added by some. For televisions, programmes were mostly sponsored by private hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. Health advocacy with media is an equally difficult proposition in India. Only some leading newspapers have dedicated space or health reporters who can be sensitised on health issues, again because health is not a priority.
Read: Plea filed in SC seeks compensation for unorganised sector workers
The narrative being that people are not interested in such stories. It is clear from private conversations with media personnel that it would be difficult to sell a health story to the Editor because an advertisement in the same space would fetch money for the salary! Discussions over commitment of healthcare workers, at least most of them—is considered `irrelevant’ because everyone believes `it is their job and they get paid for it.’ Technicians never existed for media unless they went on a strike in support of their demands. Stories about healthcare workers going beyond the call of duty are often published as a fillers or as a`favour’ by the news editor. So, what has happened this time round that healthcare workers are compared to God! Are these not the same people who are `just doing their job and getting paid for it?’ It was the same set of healthcare workers who dealt with HIV/AIDS, SARS, H1N1 or even Tuberculosis. But the reaction was never what it is like now.
Tuberculosis kills more people annually in India than any other disease. More women die during pregnancy and child birth and a lot more in road accidents. No eyebrow is raised. It is accepted as a norm. Tuberculosis finds space in media on the World TB Day when the annual report is released. It is the same health care workers who treat and deal with TB patients, many of who can be difficult and refuse to take the medicine regularly. Others are so malnourished that they cannot tolerate the side-effects of medicines.
Illiteracy and ignorance are another war that these healthcare workers fight every day while on duty. Perhaps, most Indians have learnt to live in an unhealthy community, or no election was ever fought on health as an issue, and no government thought it important enough to include health in the school curriculum. There were some random steps taken off and on, but these were never aimed to create awareness. Had it been so, people would not be spitting anywhere and everywhere that is a major cause of spread of infection.
Read: ETV Bharat reaches destitute village, reveals govt's preparedness amid lockdown
But we come back to the same question. If the healthcare workers are doing Godly things now, have not they been doing it all the time? The Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) have been, for years, been involved in promoting health seeking behaviour in the community—something that is being promoted at a high pitch now—such as sanitation, personal hygiene, and hand washing. Different people have different reasons.
It is political leadership for most, fear of catching this highly infection disease for others and even round-the-clock media coverage occupying mind space for the rest. Unprecedented situations demand unprecedented responses, and hence this unprecedented gratitude for healthcare, sanitation and security personnel. In the absence of any drug, and the crumbling of the best healthcare systems of the world, everyone seems to be depending on them for security of life.
Irrespective of the reason, the world has come together to win the war against COVID-19, and one has little doubt that it will not, going by the kind of resources and political commitments that are going into this fight. Let us hope then that this unprecedented health crisis has made the community realise the importance of health and from now it will now be a priority for the Indian media.
