SFI Begins Campaign Demanding PPE For Indian Health Workers

Student Struggle Editorial Team

Due to lack of lack of proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), healthcare workers at the forefront of the fighting against the spread of the coronavirus induced COVID-19 disease across India are at an extremely vulnerable position. Hospitals in the country have already run out of basic necessities like surgical masks, gloves, hand sanitisers. In fact, some hospitals have been making do without hazmat suits and N-95 masks ever since the pandemic broke out, making their work and even survival on a very precarious plane. Community healthcare workers including the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) are at a riskier position, considering the nature of their work by which they are to travel door-to-door both for testing and to spread awareness about the virus.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), “PPE is only one effective measure within a package of administrative and environmental and engineering controls, as described in WHO’s Infection prevention and control of epidemic – and pandemic- prone acute respiratory infections in health care”.

Many health workers in India have already been quarantined, due to the lack of adequate PPE facilities – further crippling an already overburdened and ill-funded health system. All of this is besides rampant discrimination faced by health workers across the country. From police atrocities on in Kashmir to attacks by people due to extreme anxiety and lack of awareness about the virus, health workers are being put through extremely stressful conditions.

In the light of all this, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has begun a campaign to send petitions en-masse to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding protection gears including PPE kits, N-95 masks, gloves etc. for health care workers in the country. SFI has appealed to the Indian student community to join the campaign by writing to the PM. The organisation’s aim is to send 10 lakh petitions in total.

Students can make use of the following three e-mail addresses to participate to send their petitions:

privateoffice@govmu.org
narendramodi1234@gmail.com
connect@mygov.nic.in
pmo@govmu.org

The following is the format of the letter:

Date:

To,
The Hon’ble Prime Minister
Government of India
New Delhi

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

We are writing to you on behalf of our all India students’ organisation – Students’ Federation of India (SFI). All of us are privy to details of the pandemic unfolding globally and its effects on our societies. The novel coronavirus has us all at its behest.

But I am sure you will agree that some members of the society are having to risk their safety in order to control the current health crisis and also ensure the smooth operation of things. You, yourself praised the good work being done by healthcare workers across the country in your address to the nation on 19th March, 2020. You called upon the people of this country to come out on their balconies and praise essential service providers who were continuing their work diligently during this difficult time. Regardless of your praise and also that from the people of this country, we continue to find reports of healthcare workers being made vulnerable to contract this disease owing to the lack of proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Hospitals across the country have run out of basic necessities like surgical masks, gloves and sanitisers, while some places are yet to see hazmat suits and N-95 masks. The community healthcare workers like the ASHA are even more vulnerable as they travel door-to-door in various districts for screening and awareness and without any protection in most cases. We understand you and your administration are committed to the betterment of healthcare facilities in the country and have created funds for the same but we would request you to kindly look into these reports coming in from all over the country from healthcare workers battling it out at the front lines. There have also been reports of healthcare workers getting infected owing to the lack of PPE, who are having to be quarantined. We are certain it is not news to you that we have some of the worst doctor to patient ratios in the world, doctors and other staff having to stay away from work owing to infection, would eventually lead to health institutions running short-staffed and would spell further disaster in an already dismal situation.

Healthcare workers have also been subjected to discrimination owing to their profession, and been forced to vacate rented accommodations. This has largely been owing to panic that has spread amongst the general population. We would request you to address the same and ensure that these instances do not become the norm. We have also been worried about the low testing numbers in our country. We are currently testing only 93 people per million population. The WHO has repeatedly emphasised on increased testing along with, personal hygiene and physical distancing, as the cornerstones for combatting the global spread. Instances of large-scale testing as done by countries like South Korea and Germany have proved to be beneficial in identifying carriers and limiting the spread. In a country as dense as ours, this is of utmost importance.
We hope you share the concerns that we have highlighted and will at the earliest take steps to remedy them.

We would also like to inform you that we are prepared to offer any assistance in case called upon.

Thanking you,

Name:
State:
Organisation: Students’ Federation of India (SFI)

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