COVID-19 and the Discourse on Human Rights

Abstract

The novel coronavirus infection, generally familiar as COVID-19 has first reported on December 2019 in the two provinces of China, Wuhan, and Hubei has now reached at the level of intercontinental epidemic. Absence of appropriate medicine to stop the alarming level of spread and severity of the virus resulted in the rising number of deaths of the human population worldwide. Though efforts are being made to develop vaccines to combat the COVID-19 virus, however, it is most threatening, particularly to the life of the underprivileged people, children, and old age of developing nations where health infrastructure is relatively inadequate than the developed nation. The World Health Organi-zation’s (WHO) COVID-19 protocols that involve social distancing, proper sanitization and complete lockdown of cities and towns resulted in breaking down the rapid infection rate. However, the scale and severity of COVID-19 pandemic pose a serious threat to the public health management system in India. In addition to this, imposition of nationwide lockdown, quarantine, and isolation also restricted certain human rights. Imposition of lockdown alone cannot be a viable option in India, where a large section of people are daily-based wage earners, including the migrant laborers. A humble treatment to human rights, including equal opportunity, transparency, and respect for humanity, and more importantly, establishment of the provisions within Three Generation of Human Rights are some delicate and critical issues whose solutions will come through judiciously. The study gives an overview of the present status and trend of COVID-19 pandemic in India call attention to human rights, which is under 46threat and disturbed because of a pandemic. Finally, a set of recommendations has proposed to successfully deal with the issues of principle rights and liberties in addition, the protection of civil liberties of individuals, which are thoroughly affected after the COVID-19 disruption.