The global upsurge of the COVID-19 cases has undoubtedly created a panic among the citizens of the countries. While some people are quarantining in their homes for almost 3 months now, there are also people who are stuck in other cities or countries away from their home. While steps are being taken to evacuate the people stranded in big cities and mainlands to their respective hometowns , the issue of “social stigma” has also risen. The word “social stigma” is in itself an infamous word. Why do people have to stigmatise those stranded and evacuated citizens?
The place I live in is a small town, so it does not take time for word to spread, be it truth or rumour. On March 24th, one of my neighbors, who is also my friend, came back home from Kolkata, where a number of positive cases had already been reported. She came back and self-quarantined for the required 14 days. Weeks later, there was one positive case (Mr. X) in the town who also happened to be a returnee from Kolkata. The entire town went on a panic mode.
Coincidentally, my friend happened to board the same flight as Mr. X, so she got a call from the authorities to get a medical report. Everyone who boarded the flight on 24th March had to go through a medical check up. My friend got whisked away in an ambulance later that day.
Now, the thing that I found ridiculous was that the inhabitants of my locality started speculating that she was also COVID-19 positive. It did not take time for that speculation to reach to farther localities.
Luckily, a few days later, she was discharged and given a medical report proving that she was healthy and devoid of any symptoms. It took some days for the rumour to die down but when it did, my friend was already going through mild depression and struggling to communicate with other people in fear of being stigmatised.
Now, how far can people go to start something ridiculous to talk about? People need to start educating themselves and not just sit back, talk, and form speculations. Educating oneself should be the greatest priority in this time of upheaval.
S. Shantibala Chanu
M.A
Tetso College