Social Distancing: Racism, Caste System, and Sanitation!

Racism and caste discrimination are not the only two forms of social distancing that has been practiced— the list is a shamefully long one — gender, sexual orientation, economic, modern slavery, child labour…

By Samit Aich, CEO, S3IDF-India

This article was originally published on Six Degrees News.

Let’s face it. This issue always existed.

For a very large population of this world born after 1945, specifically after the Second World War or better still, after the Spanish Flu of 1918, COVID-19 is that dreaded event that seems to have engulfed the whole world. Not many can comprehend what it means to seem like a global apocalypse which can actually stall, freeze all activities around the globe and over such long periods of time.

However, this article is not so much about COVID-19- where much has been written, is being written and will be written for sure. This is about an alternate perspective, the existence of a certain zeitgeist that has always prevailed in this world. It has existed in many parts of the world and thrived in many ugly forms. And it has also existed as much in India — and in fact, it still very much thrives.

COVID-19 has interestingly led to the usage of few arrays of words that are usually not used in our daily jargon, well, until recently. Seemingly innocuous words like Quarantine and Social Distancing. Whilst the former was used in very specific situations in very select contexts — until COVID struck, of course, the term Social Distancing is a more than a little alarming.

Actually Social Distancing is not new at all, it always existed- it just is now thrown around loosely, casually, without actually understanding the potent gravitas it carries.

In today’s context, it means keeping physically apart — doh gaz doori — as it is called in Hindi. Scientists and virologists have recommended that most governments are enforcing it and populations as a whole are expected to abide by that. So far, so good?

Continue reading on Six Degrees News.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those personally of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the organisation.