How Perspective-Taking Could Have Averted the COVID-19 Crisis in India
Like you, I’m heartbroken over the staggering COVID-19 outbreak in India. A country that has given so much to the world is in crisis. With a population of nearly 1.5 billion people and a high population density, India is facing an uptick in cases, rapid spread of the virus, and a decrease in vaccinations — and officials suspect the number of cases and COVID deaths are underreported. There is certainly a reason to feel bleak. The situation is dire. I have extended relatives and friends who have been affected. And sadly, so far at least five people I personally knew have passed. My friends in India are telling me that people in their extended social circles are just vanishing.
Many from other parts of the world may be wondering what they can do to help. You are probably familiar with the short list of actions to take. Yes, we must donate to relief efforts in India. Yes, we must demand political officials make the swift, important decisions that allow more people to be vaccinated. Yes, we must press our leaders to assist with vaccine rollout, providing ventilators and other treatment, and offering resources in whatever ways we can.
What’s happening in India cannot be separated from the realities of the caste system, which relegates some people to a lower status simply because of who they are or the family they are born into.
But we can also take powerful steps to ensure not only that India comes out of this crisis, but that it never has the opportunity to happen again, anywhere. What’s happening in India cannot be separated from the realities of the caste system, which relegates some people to a lower status simply because of who they are or the family they are born into. It’s well-known that access to healthcare — whether preventative, emergency, or life-saving — is not equally distributed across the country or the world. And when a crisis like the COVID pandemic hits, the caste system makes it so much worse. My family and extended relatives come from the dominant caste in India, and they are experiencing such harsh realities. Imagine what those without access to resources and systemic barriers must be facing.
Take the United States, for example. In the United States, COVID-19 hit particularly hard in low-income communities and communities of color. These are the same communities that already face disparities in health, as well as poorer health outcomes, because of systemic medical racism. Unconscious bias leads to lower-quality care by providers and mistrust from patients, and to top that, healthcare remains unaffordable for so many. These racial discrepancies in healthcare carried over into the country’s initial vaccine rollout. White people — our country’s dominant caste — received the bulk of available vaccines.
Our leaders must ensure that treatment, healthcare access, and vaccines are available to everyone in India, no matter their caste.
India, too, is a deeply hierarchical country, shaped by societal beliefs about the value of different castes, religious backgrounds, regions, genders, and the like. It is safe to assume that vaccine rollout, healthcare access, and other resources that will help India beat the virus will not be distributed equitably, but will favor the dominant castes. This is not the way to come out of a pandemic stronger. Our leaders must ensure that treatment, healthcare access, and vaccines are available to everyone in India, no matter their caste.
We must also remember that as we await vaccines, the ability to protect oneself and one’s community against COVID is a privilege. The CDC’s recommended practices for avoiding COVID are not accessible to everyone. Frequent hand-washing requires access to clean water. Social distancing and stay-at-home orders require a safe, clean place to stay, without a large number of other people present. Here, too, the caste system comes into play: only those with the most privilege can adequately protect themselves against the virus. Dismantling the caste system is the only way forward.
Dismantling the caste system is the only way forward.
How do we begin? Psychological mindfulness tools can help us to be more mindful, empathetic, and aware of the hardships others face — and therefore more motivated to change them. One of these tools is perspective-taking, what I like to call the ultimate tool of radical compassion. Perspective-taking involves putting ourselves in others’ shoes and embodying their lived experiences, allowing us to better understand how others are feeling. If political leaders, members of the media, and others had practiced perspective-taking in the earliest days of the pandemic, we may have been able to sidestep a great deal of pain and tragedy. But we can start now. And we must start with ourselves first, so we can encourage our leaders to take the perspective of those most marginalized in order to move forward with compassion and justice at the center of our efforts.
Psychological mindfulness tools can help us to be more mindful, empathetic, and aware of the hardships others face — and therefore more motivated to change them.
Furthermore, we must learn from this experience. The worldwide COVID crisis has been ongoing for nearly a year and a half, and yet some of our leaders are still struggling with the basic empathy and moral wherewithal required to take care of those individuals who most need it. We must continue to hold our leaders accountable, to only grant power to those willing to act in our collective best interests, and to remove those officials whose motives are purely self-serving. Lives are at stake, and there is no time to simply hope things will get better. We must take action to make them better.
I believe the people of India will get through this. The country is resilient, innovative and powerful, and its people have overcome difficult obstacles before. But we must show up as partners in their long fight, through empathy, accountability, and a commitment to equity and belonging. Together, we can overcome these deadly viruses — COVID-19 and the caste system — and build a world where we belong everywhere.
Learn how you can donate to relief efforts in India here.