When the second wave of corona in India was at its peak, Sumedha Sharma's family was also one of the families who were looking for a bed in the hospital at that time. The entire family of Sumedha Sharma, who lives in Ghaziabad, adjacent to Delhi, was diagnosed with Covid at the end of April this year. When everyone got well after staying at home, then Sumedha's husband Shantanu was caught by the coronavirus.
Shantanu was already suffering from diabetes. For the first few days, stayed at home and ate medicines. But later, when the oxygen level remained low, there was a need to be admitted to the hospital. From May 6 to May 20, Shantanu was admitted to two different hospitals.
The cost of treatment in the hospital for 15 days was about 5 lakh rupees. Some of this was obtained from insurance, but they had to pay a large part from their own pocket, because there is no fixed protocol for Covid treatment.
In 2016, Shantanu quit his job and started his own electrical appliance business. The earlier savings and deposits were invested in the business. While the business was getting set up, the lockdown started. His business has come to a standstill since last one year. That is, the income is completely closed. The house expenses were going on with the help of earlier savings. The expenses of the illness broke the back of the family. Due to the rising cost of other everyday items, now there are other household expenses for them. Every time you have to stop and think twice.
Apart from Sumedha, Shantanu, his parents and two children are in the Sharma family. The eldest daughter studies in the fifth standard and the second daughter are admitted to the nursery only last year. Home EMI charges are different. If your family is also a middle-class family of India, then you must be looking for your face in the story of Sumedha.
But was there any relief in this that could have come from the Modi government? On this, Sumedha says, "Let us reduce the cost of ration for the house, petrol, diesel, pulses, oil, then only we would have benefited. Who else has run on the virus." According to government data, the price of edible oil has increased by 25 percent in April 2021, eggs by 10 percent, fish, meat by 16, and pulses by 7 percent.
Although the prices of some vegetables have also come down such as potatoes, tomatoes, the increase in other items of ration has neutralized those prices. Petrol prices have increased 17 times in the month of May. That pace continues in June as well. Petrol is being sold in many places above Rs 100 per. Diesel too is only slightly behind petrol in terms of rates. The effect is that expensive food items have become more expensive in the name of transportation.
Where earlier Sumedha used to bring ration for the month to the house for Rs 7 thousand, from the last 2-3 months even Rs 10 thousand is falling short. Due to good immunity, consumption of fruits, vegetables, and protein-rich food is becoming more than ever in the name of health.
But Sumedha's husband Shantanu has more complaints than the insurance people and the government. He says, "In the name of a new disease, patients have been made guinea pigs, all new research has been done on us, but on the pretext of not being in the insured protocol, they have to cover the expenses. If we had tightened, the burden on our pockets would have reduced. It is the responsibility of both of them to decide the rate of every treatment. Shantanu considers himself unemployed nowadays, the work is not going on, so how to bear the expenses.
Prashant Singh of CMIE says, "If we look at the labor participation rate in 2016, it was 46 percent. Today it has come down to 40 percent. There is a matter of concern in you. It should increase. This unemployment rate was increasing after demonetization, its level has increased further during the Corona period."
Labor Participation Rate means people in the age group above 15 years who are willing to get employment and are engaged in search of employment. A decrease of 6 percent of this rate means, people have given up hope of getting employment.
Pranab Sen, a well-known statistician of the country, says, "It was easy for the government to find out those who became unemployed and got corona. Such people could be identified by filling the form at the time of the test report as in the case of Shantanu."
The problem of the central government would come in those people who lost their jobs and did not get Covid-19 disease. There was no way for the government to trace such people. Some such people had the support of Provident Fund ie PF. Pranab Sen considers such people to be of the middle class or upper-middle class.
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