Contemplation: Journey from darkness to light

Surbhi Jain

The Author of this blog is a Law Student, School of Law, Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal

Leading Covid-19

The current Novel Corona Virus or Covid-19 outbreak became an epidemic and was subsequently declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), because of the ease with which the virus has been able to travel across the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for a virtual leadership summit through the video meet of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) The video conference led to the creation of the SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund. Markets world-wide have reacted negatively forcing the finance officials and central banks to take actions.

Coronavirus recession refers to an economic recession which may happen across the world economy in 2020 due to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.[1] “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” American politician Rahm Emanuel put it aptly. India has been proactive and leadership has been courageous to go to extremes. What we have is the biggest ever lockdown in the history of mankind. There is an opportunity to do things we could not do before.

Applicability of Epidemic Disease Act, 1897

Many states in India have been invoking an old legal instrument in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897, a two-page law that has remained largely unchanged for its 123 years of existence. That is, we are controlling a 2020 pandemic using a law that was developed when people hadn’t yet begun using radio-sets and vitamin supplements didn’t exist. Experts have argued that the law continues unchanged because it is more or less adequate for its purpose. In any case we have to make do with it for now, at least for the duration of the pandemic. In such a scenario it might be helpful to know a bit more about the origins and history of this legislation.

The 1896 bubonic plague epidemic of Bombay (now Mumbai), which began in September that year and gradually spread to most parts of the subcontinent, is a well-known major event from colonial India. As has been the case with epidemics, panic and scapegoating formed a major part of the societal response, and extreme measures dominated the administrative response. On January 19, 1897, about four months after the plague was identified in Bombay, Queen Victoria delivered a speech to both houses of the British Parliament, and in which she said she had “directed [her] Government to take the most stringent measures at their disposal for the eradication of the pestilence.” The Epidemic Diseases Act is the avatar these stringent measures eventually took.

A week after Victoria’s address, the Epidemic Diseases Bill was introduced in the Council of the Governor-General of India in Calcutta (now Kolkata) for the “better prevention of the spread of dangerous epidemic diseases.” The member recognised that the powers mentioned in the Bill were extraordinary but necessary, especially that the people must “trust the discretion of the executive in grave and critical circumstances.

State initiatives for public health legislations

Many states formulated their own public health laws and many amended the provisions of their epidemic disease Acts. The Madras Public Health Act was passed in 1939. This was the first of its kind in the country. The government of Himachal Pradesh included provisions for compulsory vaccinations in its Epidemic Diseases Act, while Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh conferred powers on specific officials to execute various provisions of the Act. Bihar gave the state government the power to make requests for vehicles during epidemics. While it is true that the priorities of the states are different, the platform of a common law for combating infectious disease that the states should work on should be the same. There are instances in which different parts of a state are following two different public health acts. For example, the southern districts of Kerala follow the Travancore- Cochin Public Health Act, 1955, while the northern districts follow the Malabar Public Health Act, 1939. Municipal Acts in different states vary in quality and content, and many are vague about the measures to be taken during the outbreak of a disease . Most of the public health Acts in the states are “policing” Acts, intended to control epidemics, and do not deal with coordinated and scientific responses to prevent and tackle outbreaks[2]. Recently, many states, such as Gujarat and Karnataka have drafted public health bills which seem promising, as they have put in place a structure for better surveillance while ensuring that citizens are not denied their health rights.

Has the law been invoked earlier?

• This is not the first time that this law is being invoked in India.
• In 2018, the District Collector of Gujarat’s Vadodara issued a notification under the Act declaring the Khedkarmsiya village – cholera affected.
• In 2015, to deal with Malaria and Dengue, in Chandigarh, the Act was implemented.
• In 2009, to tackle the Swine Flu outbreak in Pune, Section 2 of the Act was enforced to open screening centres in civic hospitals across the city and Swine Flu was declared a Notifiable Disease.

A notifiable disease is any disease that is required by law to be reported to government authorities.

THE PANIC & VIRUS THREAT
For a 1.3 billion-people country, the virus-positive and death cases seemed too low to warrant a drastic action. The developed world finds this too good to be true. But people living in India can resonate with the truth as we have not heard of any hospitals getting overwhelmed or people dying unattended of fever or shortness of breath. India’s democratic social media won’t spare any such cases. Now with the lockdown, we reduce the risk to an even lower level, ensuring high probability of normal life after three weeks. One idle month in the life of an individual or a nation cannot be devastating unless not handled well.

RECESSION LOOMING LARGE
Coincidentally, the crisis has come at a time when India’s economy was struggling in the midst of one of the worst slowdowns with gross domestic product growth at sub-5% per annum. In such times, a lockdown in a country where 700 million people live at subsistence-level (with very little savings to fend for their families for a month without income) will exacerbate the pains of slowing economy. Public and private companies in the formal sector (defined as licensed organisations following labour laws) will ensure salary payments and continuity of employment, but what about the informal sector. Still, loss of income is much worse than cashless or lower tax paid income. If there is no coordinated fiscal and monetary action, the recession is a certainty. But it is almost given that the government will act with a significant stimulus to recover from the aftermath of the crisis.

WHY IS THEN CORONA THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY?
Under normal times, the government’s hands are tied by fiscal prudence and danger of inflation. Now is the time the government is unshackled. Even if fiscal deficit goes up to around 5% in such times, neither economists nor critics would mind it. As we deal with recession and deflation, there is no threat of specter of inflation either. Some leeway from fiscal deficit and $50 billion windfall from lower oil prices can allow government to put together a stimulus plan of $100-120 billion, unprecedented but justified for the worst-ever crisis. This would still pale in comparison to $2 trillion planned by the US Senate and White House, but will work for India. There are lessons to learn from the US on how to convert a crisis into a windfall. The global financial crisis of 2008 had its roots in an over-leveraged US economy. Yet, the US with bold measures turned it into the biggest opportunity driving income and wealth of Americans to a new high through uninterrupted 11-year bull run in the US stock markets. They are doing it again. India can do it too. In fact, with favourable demographics and oil prices, India has a lot better chance of rejuvenating the momentum in the economy.

support public health measures in an epidemic situation,  they are not being addressed under a single legislation.

There is an urgent need to assemble all the provisions in one over-arching public health legislation, so that the implementation of the responses to an epidemic can be effectively monitored.

Financial impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

Economic turmoil associated with the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic has wide-ranging and severe impacts upon financial markets, including stock, bond, and commodity (including crude oil and gold) markets. Major events included a described Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war after failing to reach an OPEC+ agreement that resulted in a collapse of crude oil prices and a stock market crash in March 2020. The effects upon markets are part of the coronavirus recession and among the many socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.

Future directions and recommendations for improvement of legislations

What we require is a legal framework relevant to the current context. A good public health law infrastructure establishes not only the powers of the government, but also shapes the government’s role in preventing and controlling diseases. The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, is outdated and not relevant, as discussed above. Many others who have reviewed the Act are of the same opinion . The lack of uniformity between the various acts followed in different states has also been highlighted above. There is a need for an integrated, comprehensive, actionable and relevant legal provision for the control of disease outbreaks in India. This should be articulated in a rights-based, people-focused and public health-oriented manner. The National Health Bill is one such proposed legislation.

A public health regulatory authority such as the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India or Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) may be considered. TRAI was established to regulate telecom services. Its functions included the revision or fixation of tariffs for telecom services, which was earlier done by the Central government. One of TRAI’s objectives is to protect the interests of service providers and consumers . A public health regulatory authority can propose, review and revise public health legislations on a periodic basis, recommend and lay down public health priorities, collaborate with health systems for strategic planning, provide scientific advice and technical support for the framing of state rules, help to streamline the procedures, see to the uniform implementation of laws, and act as a coordinating body which bears the overall responsibility for the effective working of the regulatory system. An agency that defines standards could ensure uniformity in the measures to be taken for the control of an outbreak and disease surveillance, including legal actions.

Conclusion

Although India has a large number of mechanisms to support public health measures in an epidemic situation, they are not being addressed under a single legislation. There is an urgent need to assemble all the provisions in one over – arching public health legislation, so that the implementation of the responses to an epidemic  can be effectively monitored.

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[1]  Schwartz, Nelson D. (21 March 2020). "Coronavirus Recession Looms, Its Course 'Unrecognizable'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 March 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2020.

[2] Kakkar M, Hazarika S, Zodpey S, Reddy KS. Influenza pandemic preparedness and response: a review of legal frameworks in India. Indian J Public Health. 2010;54(1):11-7. doi: 10.4103/0019-557X.70539.