KARACHI:
Covid-19 has adversely affected people belonging to any social class, any age group, any gender, or any walk of life in our country — be it a student or a teacher, an employee or an employer, a celebrity or a common man, a big businessman or a roadside vendor, a man residing in a plush mansion or one in a shanty.
A lot of businesses have been shut and many have barely survived. A large number of people have lost their jobs while many of those fortunately still on job have suffered pay-cuts. Household budgets have, therefore, taken a big hit and families belonging to low social class are hardly making ends meet. Since the educational institutions are still closed, students continue with online studies even though a majority of them are unable to afford the required smart gadgets or a quiet corner within their homes to concentrate on their lecture. Many of the teachers too are not comfortable with the high tech way of teaching.
Now that the pandemic has been suppressed in the country to a considerable strength, the government is required to adopt special measures to take the country back to the pre-Covid situation. The government has taken a few good steps like: launching stimulus packages for businesses; bringing down the central bank’s interest rate; extending cash to the needy people under the Ehsas Programme; announcing a package for the construction industry to spur commercial activity in the dozens of related industries; and introducing special packages for youths under the Kamyab Jawan Programme featuring scholarships and loan facilities.
However, the government will still have to take a proper stock of the Covid-affected situation in the country and come up with further incentives, especially for people in the low-income group. The government needs to conduct a survey to determine where it has to start off from and who it has to reach out to first.
Hasan Khalid
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, August 14th, 2020.
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