Student Struggle Editorial Team
The Students’ Federation of India has releases a statement announcing their plan to protest the central government’s apathy in the face of deepening COVID-19 crisis in the country and demanding mass vaccination for all. April 30th has been declared by the organisation as the day for nation-wide protests for the same, appealing all progressive minded sections of the society to join the struggle.
Read the statement below:
As the situation around the COVID crisis in the country intensifies, there is a growing realisation that herd immunity is the only solution. The scientific community and the people of the country realise that the fastest way to reach herd immunity to for the government to launch a universal vaccination programme. Under this programme, the cost of vaccine shots must be bared by the government completely instead of shifting the burden on the citizens. Throughout the history of the modern world, numerous cases inform us that market mechanisms in terms of dispersal of public goods like medicines have been a failure. This realisation prompted the previous governments to take the onus of carrying out universal vaccination drives and bearing all costs associated with it. Vaccines are global public goods, and it is the constitutional responsibility of enlightened welfare states to provide them free of charge to everyone. Right to health flows directly from Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, and the right to free vaccines is a sub-set of it. The legacy of free, universal vaccination programmes have helped the country overcome diseases like polio completely.
However, the vaccine policy announced by the Central Government is reflective of the complete surrender of the government to the interests of private monopolies and big business. The allowance to private companies to sell 50% of the vaccine produced at manufacturer-determined prices to state governments is ill-conceived in tackling the crisis and leading to disastrous consequences.
Firstly, the GoI has withdrawn itself from any commitment to ensure vaccines to States. The creation of a vaccine shortage over the last four months will lead to manufacturers extort higher prices for the vaccine from the state governments. Due to the limited number of resources available with the state governments because of a skewed fiscal structure, the burden will ultimately fall on the people. The role of GoI will now be limited to the vaccination of the first 30 crore vulnerable sections, who get the vaccine free. Rest will have to pay at a substantially higher price than at present.
Secondly, the scientific outlook does not have optimal penetration amongst large swaths of people in the country. One reason why free vaccination drives work well in India is that people do not see such vaccination drives as a financial burden on an already cash-strapped household. Despite this, it took a significantly longer time for the previous governments to make India polio-free. As is well known, there is already considerable vaccine hesitancy in India due to superstitious reasons. Charging Rs. 400-600/dose will only reinforce such hesitancy and work as a blockade for universal vaccination.
Thirdly, the logic that the private manufacturers need profits to incentivise them to produce vaccines is wrong. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the privately-owned Serum Insitute of India (SII) himself said in an NDTV interview that SII makes a “normal profit” per dose at the current Rs. 150/dose. What the private companies are eyeing is “super profits” in the coming months. He said in another ANI interview that his preferred price for Covishield is Rs. 1000/dose.
This essentially means that the GoI, which can regulate the prices of vaccine, especially so amongst the midst of a pandemic, is not doing so to cater to the greed of big pharmaceutical companies. This position of prioritising private greed over people’s lives is entirely unacceptable.
The complete surrender of the GoI to big business interests will result in an exponential increase in the people’s misery in the coming future. Thus, the SFI is forced to call for agitation condemning the anti-people vaccination policy and demands free universal vaccination and free services of Oxygen cylinders, pulse oximeter, and nebuliser machines, Glucometers.
SFI Central Executive Committee calls upon all its SFI units across the country to organise physical protest actions on April 30, maintaining appropriate physical distancing norms demanding from the central government to adopt and implement a free, universal vaccination programme immediately. In areas where there is a lockdown, the units amplify this demand over social media through photos, infographics, videos and Twitter storm. We appeal to all progressive and scientific-minded people of the country to participate in the protest actions.
VP Sanu (President)
Mayukh Biswas (General Secretary)
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