ACADEMIA Letters Is Social Distancing a Panacea? A Socio-Anthropological Case of Intimacy of Community Health Workers from Eastern Indian State KASI ESWARAPPA, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University SUMAN DAS, National Institute of Technology Rourkela The novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 has become a global Pandemic and to date, the death toll has surged past 4, 00,000 people. This virus is combined with a large number of viruses that are infectious to not only human beings but also other beings such as animals. The infection passes from human to human through contact with individuals with COVID-19 symptoms. The symptoms of COVID-19 are ranging from fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, headache, tiredness, chest pain, conjunctivitis, and others. On 26 June 2020, in India the number of COVID-19 cases have reached 4, 75,770 and the fatality rate of the country is 2.82 percent which is much lower than the global fatality rate of 6.13 percent (Covid-19 Updates, Government of India; Times of India). Scholars belonging to all disciplines have opined that the outbreak of the virus has the worst impact on human society across the globe. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols, one of the main means to tackle this pandemic is to follow the social distancing norms. Accordingly, governments of all the affected countries have advised their citizens to adhere to the guidelines, strictly follow social distancing norms, and enforced them with strict vigilance in few pockets. In India, it is evident that the women, Dalits, and other vulnerable people who are at the lower rung of the social hierarchy have to face a disproportionate burden of the pandemic. These vulnerable groups suffer both socially and economically which ultimately led to an increase in mortality rate, loss of their livelihoods, and difficulty to access health care services. In rural areas of India, the health needs of vulnerable groups are much higher compared to urban people due to their low levels of literacy, the standard of living, and inequality in access Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: KASI ESWARAPPA, kasie030873@gmail.com Citation: Eswarappa, K., Das, S. (2021). Is Social Distancing a Panacea? A Socio-Anthropological Case of Intimacy of Community Health Workers from Eastern Indian State. Academia Letters, Article 2802. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2802. 1 to resources and other benefits. This blog is based on the eastern Indian state of Odisha. Eastern India constitutes four states which include Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Odisha. The blog is focused on the situation of Odisha during this crisis period. It also discusses briefly the measures initiated by the state to control the pandemic in the countryside. The primary data is gathered through telephonic interviews of community health workers and other frontline healthcare providers. Odisha predominantly consists of rural inhabitants where around 83 percent of its population live in the rural areas (Executive summary of Odisha, Census 2011, Government of India). The majority of the people eke out their livelihood through agriculture. Further, it shows that the people are more dependent on agriculture and its allied activities. According to the reports of NITI Aayog (2018), Odisha records the highest number of people belong to the Below Poverty Line (BPL), i.e., 32.59% as compared to the national average of 25.7%. Thus, the standard of living of the people of Odisha is also low in comparison to the national average. However, the health indicators of the state are also low compared to the national average. This was reflected in the infant mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio (per 100 thousand live births), which stands for 48 and 180 and is higher than the national average of 41 and 130 respectively (Sample registration system (2016) and NITI Aayog; Government of India). According to WHO protocols, it is essential to maintain social distancing norms from others of a minimum of two feet of distance. Social distancing will, significantly, help to curtail the spread of the pandemic among the people. But in reality, in the urbane locals of India and elsewhere, we are experiencing an abnormal increase in the pandemic. The situation is not that alarming in the countryside of India. It is evident that in rural areas one-third of the population in India lives in less than a single room (Khan and Abraham, 2020). Scholars and scientists are of the opinion that looking at the grim picture of housing infrastructure available, it is difficult for rural masses to maintain the norm of social distancing within a family. It is even more difficult to follow social distancing at workplaces such as in agricultural operations and its allied activities such as poultry farms. It is observed from the current pandemic that frontline health workers and servicing staff are experiencing a lot of difficulties in their work protocols. In few instances, people attacked the frontline health workers and servicing staff in the few urban pockets of India. These instances indicate that the pandemic created a kind of fear or trauma among the people. The media also contributed its role in the spread of the hype about the pandemic. In this context, WHO alerted the state to keep vigilant about the infodemic. The state continuously alerted the people about the infodemic and to a large extent curtail the fake news. In Odisha, active COVID-19 cases are 5752 to date and 17 persons are deceased. The Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: KASI ESWARAPPA, kasie030873@gmail.com Citation: Eswarappa, K., Das, S. (2021). Is Social Distancing a Panacea? A Socio-Anthropological Case of Intimacy of Community Health Workers from Eastern Indian State. Academia Letters, Article 2802. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2802. 2 figures indicate that the state is systematically curtailed the spread of the pandemic in a significant way by its efficient administration and decentralized planning. The state has given authority to the District Magistrate, locally known as Collector, to plan effective measures and to control the spread of the pandemic. District Collectors of Odisha, in turn, delegated their powers to Panchayat functionaries, locally known as Sarpanch, at the Gram Panchayat level. In each of the Gram Panchayat, they constituted COVID-19 prevention committees consisting of Warm member of Gram Panchayat, ASHA worker, AWW, and two members from Self-Help Groups (SHGs) as its members. The aim of the committee is to create awareness of pandemics among the rural masses. The frontline health workers in India such as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), Anganwadi Workers (AWWs), and Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (ANMs) are poised to play a vital role in handling the current pandemic situation at the grassroots level. In rural areas, these community health workers (CHWs) are familiar to the community as they belong to their own vicinity and are well conversant with the people of the area. Hence, it is easy for CHWs to create awareness among the people of the village. CHWs go for door-to-door social campaigning to make them aware of the pandemic and related ailments. To ponder about social distancing, in the real sense of the term, and to what extent are CHWs follow the social distancing norms in their day to work protocols are needed to be further probed and discussed. While interviewing the CHWs through telephone, our respondent, Savita, shared her experience with researchers. She said that, though, CHWs are directly exposed to the COVID-19 patients in the villages. But the fact of the matter is that CHWs have not been provided with proper personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and N95 masks. Only hand sanitizers are distributed among CHWs. CHWs are using their handkerchiefs or towels as face masks. She also mentioned that maintaining social distance is not possible in our village as the majority of the people belong to vulnerable sections of the society. Each family inhabits thatched houses in the village. People do not have independent housing infrastructure to follow the norm and main the social distance. Due to their low levels of literacy people are not aware of the infodemic. People are not aware of their health and hygiene in the village. She further mentioned that people are worried about their livelihoods more than the pandemic in their village. Due to all these prevailing situations and grim pictures in the village, the role of CHWs is pivotal and especially during the current pandemic times. It is observed from the field that scarcity of health workers is a major issue in the rural areas of Odisha. Due to this problem, CHWs come under severe work pressure for disseminating the message in a short period of time to rural communities. Hence, these issues also need to be looked into by the policymakers in order to deliver better service to the rural people. Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: KASI ESWARAPPA, kasie030873@gmail.com Citation: Eswarappa, K., Das, S. (2021). Is Social Distancing a Panacea? A Socio-Anthropological Case of Intimacy of Community Health Workers from Eastern Indian State. Academia Letters, Article 2802. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2802. 3 References 1. Census of India. (2011). Executive Summary of Odisha. Government of India. https:// censusindia.gov.in/2011census/PCA/PCA_Highlights/pca_highlights_file/Odisha/Executive_Summary. pdf Retrieved on 22 June 2020. 2. India in figures. (2018). Ministry of Statistics and programme implementation. Government of India. Retrieved from http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/ India_in_figures- 2018_rev.pdf 3. India fights against corona Covid-19, Government of India. https://www.mygov.in/ covid-19Retrieved on 22 June 2020. 4. Khan and Abraham (2020): No ‘Room’ for Social Distancing: A Look at India’s Housing and Sanitation Conditions, Economic & Political Weekly, 55 (16). 5. NITI AAYOG. Maternal Mortality Ratio. Government of India. Retrieved from https:// niti.gov.in/content/maternal-mortality-ratio-mmr-100000-live-births Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: KASI ESWARAPPA, kasie030873@gmail.com Citation: Eswarappa, K., Das, S. (2021). Is Social Distancing a Panacea? A Socio-Anthropological Case of Intimacy of Community Health Workers from Eastern Indian State. Academia Letters, Article 2802. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2802. 4