Open Letter to Prime Minister of India – Fighting Corona

To

Shri. Narendra Modi Ji
The Honorable Prime Minister of India

Date: April 12^th, 2020

Subject: Let’s Save India Together.

Respected Sir,

My name is Manoj Kumar Singh. I am just a law abiding citizen of India resident at Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh. By qualification, I am Biotechnologist. I am also president of Power In Me Foundation a trust that works for the welfare of people with rare diseases. Our focus is on their health, education and livelihood generation. Rare diseases patient make up around 8-10 crore of Indian population and when you consider a normal family then the number of lives affected due to rare diseases make up around 40crore people. That accounts for almost 1/3^rd of the total population of India. I am also a patient of severe hemophilia a rare bleeding disorder. We are very young as an organization of patients and people who believe in positive.

I am writing this letter to you as our support in this grave crisis our country and world is facing. Sir, I appreciate the steps you have taken to combat the spread of this highly infectious coronavirus and protect our people.

You are already aware that Indian healthcare system is not of that level to control the spread and treatment of the coronavirus infection. It is due to poor infrastructure of majority of government hospitals and doctors not taking interest.

I may sound negative but this is the hard fact of India. I believe and support stay home to stay safe measure. I can tell about it because as a rare disease patient I have to frequently visit the hospital. It is a great challenge for us to first convince the doctors that we have problem, then any treatment is given.

Sir, for example many states have started to provide factor injection to patients of hemophilia because without government support we cannot buy this medicine due to its very high cost and frequent use. I cannot discuss the whole thing here but this brief is to help you understand the severity of the issue.

Rare diseases and chronic diseases are very prevalent in India. That makes us at the higher risk of complications if treatment not given on time. We need regular medicine for normal life. Coronavirus problem has raised the preexisting healthcare problem for us and our family because now everyone is locked at home. We are also locked without any medicine. And all the hospitals are busy preparing for the coronavirus. This is not wrong but sir, rare diseases and chronic diseases if not treated on time can be life threatening.  The hospitals and administrations are not arranging for our medicine, the excuse being the corona crisis and lockdown. We are sitting at home praying to God for his help.

Majority of the people with rare diseases family do not have big bank balances or big salaries or business to manage them. Lockdown has stopped all the sources of income for the family too.

These are trying times bigger than before. You have made the announcements for the registered laborers, NAREGA workers and farmers but nothing focuses on the families with these types of problems at their homes. Sir, we need support too for health and ample supply of our medicine that somewhere due to corona has been compromised. Patients are also not able to reach the hospitals and suffering at their home, which can be life threatening or can make them disable too.

These families of rare diseases already face a vicious cycle leading to uncertain income and savings, adding to it the corona crisis has made life difficult for them.

Sir, above were problems that rare disease and chronic diseases families are facing that I wanted to share with my honorable prime minister because we as a nation are there with you and this shall pass too.

Here are some of the steps I believe when implemented can help our country to fight this crisis and also ensure we have sustainable economy saving many small businesses and jobs of the people.

1. First extend the lockdown for indefinite time with time to time evaluation of the situation. This way people who are not obeying the lockdown will know that they need to stay at home to reduce the time of lockdown. It will also give our healthcare providers time to build the system and administrations to ensure better facility to people.
2. Get the healthcare department and pharma companies’ task force to ensure proper availability of the medicines and PPE for the doctors and other staff. There should be a specific fund allotted for that.
3. Many herbs and spices have antiviral properties that are effective against viruses causing flu like symptoms. Ayush department can focus on those plant extracts and their mixtures too for the possibility of treatment. Kindly include them too in the treatment process and clinical studies for them to be done.
4. Each states and if possible each district should have special training facilities where NGO volunteers be also trained into identifying the disease and most importantly into diagnosis.
5. Convert at least one lab in all the big central universities and private universities/colleges with good lab facilities into diagnosis centers that way we will save time and money into lab set up for diagnosis. The saved amount can be used to get more kits and larger level diagnosis done.
6. For farmers the crop is ready to be harvested and sold. Prepare a panchayat wise procurement facility that way only few people will need to move out. In this FCI authorities with Tractors or trucks and visit each panchayat where common set up for whole panchayat crops is collected. Sarpanch and Food department of the district will co-ordinate reporting to District collector. Video recording of everything to avoid any forgery. There should be multiple teams for different panchayats with their health monitoring done each day keeping in mind corona. 
7. Fix a proper support price for the yield because that will help support the farmers too.
8. For vegetables and fruits yields again the 3^rd point above model can be followed and vendors appointed who are pre-screened for virus and kept separate to ensure no cross infection. Each vendor gets a specific location near the colonies or ward as per the specific region and the density of population there.
9. Give a clear guidelines to all the industries for the next 12 months for sustainable business model with no profit and no loss model. Companies do not get to levi off their employees. Reduce the salary of the highly paid administration and other levels to some extend to ensure sustainability.
10. Government to give special exemption to small businesses on their loans upto Rs. 2 lakhs to Rs. 5 lakhs to help them survive.
11. For bigger businesses banks be told not to charge any interest for the next 12 months to help them sustain too. Meanwhile these companies keep paying their emi of the loan taken in routine manner.
12. Banks will also work as no profit no loss basis with reduced interest rates for the loans to help businesses and farmers. Please ensure no mortgage of the property for small businesses and farmers but that has to be properly evaluated by the bank managers.
13. Identify the NGOs to work along the government especially working in Health, Nutrition and Education sectors to ensure proper food and education to the poor section of the society.
14. Time to take strong decision especially introduction of more electrical vehicles in India and for that device special exchange programs and loan facilities for the customers. Fastrack the project that is working on solar energy and other aspects of cleaner vehicles. This will help us keep the environment clean as we can see now. Special packages for the companies that manufactures these vehicles. For this ensure the number of vehicles on the road by regulating the lockdown from time to time until complete eradication of corona.
15. This is also a right time to focus on the health care system of the country by improving the government infrastructure of the hospitals and advance CME program for the medical staff.
16. Development of Patients and Doctors association with a central resource for Rare and Chronic diseases to improve better healthcare for them. Connect it through the centralized app or website.
17. In education we are facing closure of institutes that may extend further. Along with this we have shortage of teachers. Right now there is requirement of B.Ed for teachers to get job in schools. I propose to make it not necessary as there are number of people who love to teach and are great teachers but don’t have B.Ed. In fact develop a simple online skill testing program to evaluate the teachers and their training program. This will take place annually to gauze the competency of teachers at various levels and a small fees will be charged for that. It will be equivalent to the B.Ed but will be taken annually with advance tests each year based on the number of years of experience of the teacher. This way post corona we will fill the teaching positions too.
18. For families with rare diseases, kindly rethink on the current national rare disease policy and focus on every aspect of the patient and their family members. For immediate relief kindly guide the health departments and labor department to protect their rights and a separate package to help them through this. Take the help of patient advocacy groups and NGOs for that.

Sir, the main of my suggestions for the industry was to ensure cash flow into the economy as the paying capacity of customers is highly reduced especially at the lower levels which you are already aware. High prices of the product will lead to less buying and affecting the businesses. So, if a right model can be developed that gives relief to the customers to buy without having to pay too much it will also benefit government not to device too many packages for relief but economy will pick up itself. Also, during this time we as the nation can bring a revolution and enter a totally new India that is gelled together in Unity and development.

I also give myself to the service of the nation. In any case or any time my services are felt I will be blessed to serve my country.

Thanking You!

Yours Sincerely,

Manoj Kumar Singh,
President-Power In Me Foundation