MyVoice: Views of our readers 07th April 2020

Let's be united in the fight against coronavirus

We celebrate by lighting lamps on the day of Diwali in view of traditional reasons. Diwali symbolises the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. On the same lines, as per the call of Prime Minister on Sunday, lighting lamps programme was conducted successfully as part of our fight against Covid-19.

It has given message to the country as well as the world and urged to stay united and fight against Covid-19. This spirit must continue in the coming days and we need to co-operate the Central and State governments.

So many discussion happened on the lighting lamps programme on social media, but this programme has proved that the people in the country are united. For a while, people forgot all the Covid-19 fears and spent happily.

We must create awareness among people on how to take precautionary measures to tackle coronavirus.

We have to explain them how to cooperate with the governments, Health, Police, Panchayat Raj and Municipal departments in the fight against Covid-19 and spread the knowledge among the people and stand with them.

A Shyam Kumar, Hanamkonda

Support nurses and midwives

The World's Health Day is celebrated on April 7 every year. It is meaningful and appropriate to dedicate the World Health Day to all members who are associated with the treatment of novel coronavirus disease, Covid-19.

The theme adopted for the World's Health Day 2020 is "Support Nurses and Midwives". The entire world is observing and praising the services of nurses and health workers. Their services are highly appreciable in the present Covid-19 crises.

It is the right time to recognise their services and suitably honour them. The WHO should initiate the procedure duly in consultation with national and international leaders.

Today nurses and midwives are facing so many challenges while discharging their duties. Every community health centre should be provided with more than seven nurses. But on ground reality it is different.

Nurses have no social respect and they are getting low salaries. According to the international nursing body, 19 nurses lost their lives during the treatment of Covid-19 in Italy. Nurses haven't been provided with testing kits, training on infection prevention and control and basic facilities in isolation wards.

In the present days, medical education has become costlier than engineering. Less number of government medical institutions are available when compared to engineering institutions. This should be addressed properly.

The Union government should sanction one medical college to each district immediately. If possible, allocate funds in the next budget for the same. Health education should be introduced in the curriculum as compulsory subject from 8th standard onwards and further extended to a higher level year after year.

For encouraging nurses and midwives, may be granted an incentive during this critical time. The theme "Support Nurses and Midwives" on the World Health Day 2020 is truly justified in this context.

Salmon Raju Pedapalli, Machilipatnam, AP

Modi's half-baked ideas

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the public to applaud health workers by banging on pots and pans.

Without understanding the dangers, people congregated in large numbers in building lobbies and neighbourhood squares; some even held parades.

Modi has now asked everyone to turn out the electricity in their homes and light candles for nine minutes on Sunday. Nonplussed power departments around the country were scrambling to ensure the reliability of grids, fearing outages due to a sudden change in voltage.

These half-baked schemes crowd out the shocking images of those most left behind: kilometre-long lines of migrants and overcrowded hospitals, all now drowned out by the din of pots and pans.

One thing is clear: Modi is trying to co-opt what began as spontaneous, popular symbols in other parts of the world for propaganda under the guise of solidarity.

Orchestrated spontaneity may sound like an oxymoron, but it seems to be having the desired effect.

Laxmi Durga Yeluripati, Vijayawada, AP