Old school 'Indic' ways helped India arrest pace of COVID-19

At a time when the world is investing billions in medical research and development to fast track a coronavirus vaccine, it seems India's old school 'Indic' ways proved much more efficient in containing the rapid spread of the deadly virus.

To begin with, it's the 'namaste' culture instead of a predominant handshake which seemed to have helped India in implementing an aggressive social distancing effort. From world leaders like Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu to figures like Britain's Prince Charles promoting Indian 'namaste' as an alternative to shaking hands.

In fact, the Israeli Embassy in India tweeted, "Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu @netanyahu encourages Israelis to adopt the Indian way of greeting #Namaste at a press conference to mitigate the spread of #coronavirus."

Dr D.R. Rai, former secretary general of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) backs the Indic ways. "How much you may wash hands, it doesn't matter if you continue to shake hands or hug. Indian namaste is the way to go in such time," he remarked.

Even good old quarantine system has come to rescue for India. India declared it an emergency at its early stage of level two, while much of the developed countries did so in level four. The large scale home quarantine to isolation - basic old school models helped arrest the pace of spread of the virus.

Even basics like home isolations are helping is containing the spread. No wonder these techniques have drawn international applause too. World Economic Forum called these steps "good and impressive" steps. "India is doing quite well," said the WHO Representative Henk Bekedam.

"Despite being the world's second most populous country, with more than 1.3 billion people, the nation has reported three deaths," notes the WEF. While the pace is being arrested, the government continues to heavily rely on such Indic old school ways with different branches of paramilitary being asked to prepare for large scale quarantine facilities.

"No amount of technology can help us pass through this. It's basics like self isolation alone can help us sail through. And India has done a great job in that respect," says Dr Rai. IANS