Covid-19 and its impact

1. Introduction

A pandemic which doesn't require any intro. With only four hours notice, the Government of India imposed a nationwide lockdown to combat COVID-19, which began on March 24^th, 2020 and is scheduled to end on May 17^th, 2020.The lockdown was implemented through executive orders, beginning March 24^th, 2020, together with guidelines under the Disaster Management Act (DMA).In that scenario, coronavirus is dominating all aspects of our lives. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc upon peoples lives, altering the way we live and work in a very short amount of time. It has revolutionised how we think about health care, education, and even social interaction. This virus has had long-term implications on our society, including its impact on mental health, economic stability, and global politics. But we as individuals can help to mitigate these effects by taking personal responsibility to protect themselves and those around them from infection.

2.Symptoms

Symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may appear 2 to 14 days after exposure. This time after exposure and before having symptoms is called the incubation period. You can still spreadCOVID-19 before you have symptoms. This is called presymptomatic transmission. Common symptoms can include:[3].

Fever.
Cough.
Tiredness.

Early symptoms of COVID-19 may include a loss of taste or smell.

Other symptoms may include:

Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.
Muscle aches.
Chills.
Sore throat.
Runny nose.
Headache.
Chest pain.
Pink eye (conjunctivitis).
Nausea.
Vomiting.
Diarrhea.
Rash.

3. Effects of CoronaVirus on Education in India

Theres growing evidence that Covid-19 has left Indias schoolchildren significantly worse off academically.

In the absence of physical classrooms and without the devices or internet necessary to access online school, nearly 40% of students in underprivileged households have not been studying at all.

These finding are part of the School Childrens Online and Offline Learning report, or School for short, coordinated by researchers Nirali Bakhla, Jean Drze, Vipul Paikra, and Reetika Khera, based on a 15-state survey of nearly 1,400 households in August. About 60% of the households reside in rural India, a share slightly less than for the population as a whole, and 60% are representative of Dalit and Adivasi communities. To gauge the impact on less privileged families, volunteers focused on households where children were likely to be enrolled in classes 1-8 in public schools, rather than private ones.

When the pandemic hit, India had about 265 million children enrolled in school, including primary and higher levels, with most of them relying on public systems. [1].

4. Effects of CoronaVirus on Courts

In order to fully appreciate the impact of the virus, the author attempts to provide an account of the effect of COVID-19 with reference to historical health emergencies and their impact on the judicial apparatus.[2]

1. Pendency in Indian Courts

The Indian Judiciary has been overburdened for several years, and COVID-19 is only adding to this menace. As of May 27, 2020, there are approximately 3.24 crore pending cases in Indiassubordinate courtsand about 48.2 lakh pending cases in the High Courts.

The Supreme Court, vide its notification dated March 13, 2020, restricted functioning of the Court to urgent matters only.

High Courts too have restricted their functioning to urgent matters. In normal course, a High Court hears north of 400 matters a day. As per data collected from Daily Cause Lists of various High Courts, since late March, High Courts across the country are hearing anywhere between 10-100 matters a day.

Subordinate courts account for over 80% of pending cases. On June 2, the Karnataka High Court extended the closure of all district courts, family courts, labour courts and industrial tribunals in the state till July 6. On April 29, the Punjab Haryana High Court ordered that all district and sub-divisional Courts in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh will function restrictively from May 1 till the lockdown/curfew is in force in the respective area. These restrictive measures have led to a glut of pending cases, thereby increasing the burden on courts.

2. Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

Pendency in Indias courts has always been a hindrance in securing timely justice for people, if not denying justice altogether. As the usual functioning of courts has been disrupted, many undertrials and even many of those whose appeals are pending, are left with no recourse. It can hardly be denied that the subject adage has particular force in the criminal sphere.

In pursuance of the Apex Courts directions dated March 23, states and union territories have been asked to constitute High Powered Committees to determine which class of prisoners can be released on parole or an interim bail for such period as may be thought appropriate.

5. Effects of covid 19 in assault

Public health measures including social distancing and stay-at-home (SAH) orders implemented globally to control the spread of COVID-19 created circumstances that may however have had a profound impact on criminal offending trends, and hence the association between COVID-19 and various types of crimes has emerged as a subject of scholarly interest. This growing concern about an increasing risk of domestic violence during the pandemic was documented by several authors (Buttell Ferreira, 2020;Kofman Garfin, 2020;Sharma Borah, 2020). As well, non-profit organizations and researchers warned that the pandemic and its public health control measures may have set the stage for exacerbating the effects of isolation and heightening the vulnerability of many to domestic violence and calls for action to address this possible surge in domestic violence were made (Abramson, 2020;Campbell, 2020;Kumar, 2020;UN Women, 2020;WHO, 2020).

Contrary to the increased potential for domestic violence in the face of the pandemic, the risk of assaults in public areas away from the home was expected to decrease as a result of social distancing rules (Ashby, 2020;Campedelli, Favarin et al., 2020;Payne et al., 2020). These issues clearly highlighted the need to better understand how COVID-19 might affect violent crime and in what respect. Hence, it was believed that studying the social conditions and changes that might influence patterns of violent crimes during situations such as a pandemic was felt to possibly provide insights that could be important for developing effective policy responses to the pandemic.[4].

6. Conclusion

This research has captured the diversity and complexity of peoples experiences.Peoples experiences of the pandemic and their ability to stay safe has been impacted by a range of factors, including: their geographical environment, their financial situation, profession, their living situation and if they have any physical or mental health conditions.Even though the direct level of threat from COVID-19 has reduced (for some people), there is still concern about the longer term harm and disruption that COVID-19 has caused to people and communities, and worry about the threat of future waves of infection.This report captures a number of specific suggestions for support. For example, support for key workers, creating safer public environments, wide-scale financial support, greater awareness around the experiences of those who are at higher risk to COVID-19 and putting in place robust processes for learning and reflection on the impact of the pandemic.Public engagement in this open and unfiltered format is an essential part of making sense of peoples attitudes and behaviours within the context of their life.[5]