{"id":108657,"date":"2021-05-26T10:47:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T05:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=108657"},"modified":"2021-05-28T19:41:13","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T14:11:13","slug":"significance-of-community-efforts-in-tackling-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/significance-of-community-efforts-in-tackling-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Significance of Community Efforts in Tackling the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government should support community efforts in tackling the pandemic. It should recognize the best efforts and help them scale to a bigger level to make a larger impact.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-fight-against-social-evils-like-mob-lynching-and-honour-killings-demands-states-and-community-efforts-comment\/\">Firstly, Community efforts<\/a> have been immensely helpful in tackling social problems as the government or market can\u2019t always meet the needs of citizens.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secondly, In the initial years of independence, community groups collected money and supplemented government efforts for development. However, with the passage of time, they took more institutional forms like NGOs who used to directly help the citizens.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thirdly, India\u2019s ethos, value systems, and cultural strengths have automatically generated new community groups. They are playing an active role in tackling the second wave of pandemic.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Positive Role played by Community Efforts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Breathe India and HelpNow<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> apps are facilitating access to oxygen concentrators, hospitals, and ambulances. Both the apps have been developed by IITians.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BreatheIndia managed to get nearly 200 concentrators and raise an amount of Rs 2.41 crore.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, HelpNow has a mission to save lives by providing timely and quality medical help with neat and sanitised ambulances.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Challenges associated with Community Efforts:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Firstly<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, they are facing<\/span><b> information asymmetry <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">over various medical equipment and hospital delivery strategies. Which is hampering their efforts. Further, they lack clarity over the ever-changing rules and regulations by governments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Secondly<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, many NGOs are <\/span><b>not able to obtain foreign assistance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> due to stringent FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) restrictions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Thirdly<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>dearth of resources and support <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prevent the scaling up of community initiatives at a macro level.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Way Forward<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NITI Aayog should take multiple steps for supporting community efforts.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should engage with government institutions that encourage public participation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should look into the weaknesses and failures of the existing framework in attracting community participation.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>The use of advanced technologies (ABCD<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and data analytics) can bridge demand-supply gaps.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should partner with state governments to explore the launch of platforms that promote cross-learning and experience-sharing. This would help in scaling the community initiatives and prevent the asymmetric flow of information.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Aayog currently has <\/span><b>a DARPAN portal <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that creates and promotes a healthy partnership between VOs\/NGOs and the Government of India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The focus should also be placed on <\/span><b>good local-level government initiatives.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, the <\/span><b>Nandurbar district of Maharashtra<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> robustly tackled the second wave due to the efficient work of their district collector (Rajendra Bharud). The efforts made the region an oxygen and hospital bed surplus district.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> newspapers should report community efforts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on a larger scale for motivating people in depressing times.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heart-breaking pictures and reports have contributed to Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. A temporary heart condition that is brought on by stress.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/second-wave-covid-infections-fcra-ngo-help-niti-aayog-7328874\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indian Express<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis:\u00a0The government should support community efforts in tackling the pandemic. It should recognize the best efforts and help them scale to a bigger level to make a larger impact. Background: Firstly, Community efforts have been immensely helpful in tackling social problems as the government or market can\u2019t always meet the needs of citizens. Secondly, In&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/significance-of-community-efforts-in-tackling-the-pandemic\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Significance of Community Efforts in Tackling the Pandemic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,1351,1310,9],"tags":[1298],"class_list":["post-108657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","tag-gov_1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700791000,"cached_date":1704888984},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}