7 June 2021, NIICE Commentary 7041
Dr. Sushmita Rajwar
Since the COVID-19 Pandemic engulfed the world, India has been at the forefront to provide aid and assistance to other nations. It has never shirked away in sending away medical equipment, testing kits, medicines, Hydroxychloroquine to other nations. In 2019, while the countries around the world were struggling to cope with the deadly virus, India which wasn’t as badly affected as many others was busy providing assistance to other countries. The whole of 2019 passed on with nations putting all their energy on producing vaccines and India was also amongst the earliest ones to succeed. India had been urging the US for lifting the ban on export of items for manufacturing of vaccines. India also removed the export ban of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) tablets and exported them first to neighbourhood countries and then to the rest of the world.
As soon as the production of vaccines started in India, it started exporting tonnes of vaccines to many countries around the world, some of them as grants. SAARC countries were among the first ones to receive it followed by the rest of the nations. 66 million vaccines were sent to 95 countries and of these 10 million were sent as grants from the Indian Government, 20 million vaccines as the Global COVAX facility and 36 million vaccines were commercial exports. Among the few countries that received doses under the ‘Maitri Vaccine Initiative’ are Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Mauritius, Seychelles, Oman, Dominica and Barbados. The Serum Institute of India has become the leader supplier to the COVAX facility led by GAVI, the vaccine alliance along with WHO and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. The COVAX facility, however, has fallen behind due to the second wave in India and the problems faced in manufacturing. The WHO Chief Scientist said that this crisis in India has affected at least 91 countries. There are many low and middle income group countries that are dependent on COVAX facility which leads to equitable distribution of vaccines around the world.
If we compare this huge distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world, not many countries will be able to match with India. China has exported 240 million vaccines and has committed to provide another 500 million doses and European Union has exported about 113.5 million vaccines to 43 countries. Moreover, with the crisis of second wave hitting India and production of vaccines being hampered, more and more countries are shifting their reliability towards China for vaccine import. India was quite confident that along with the production of vaccines, it can continue to vaccinate its own population efficiently. In April 2021, India declared that it was the fastest in the world in vaccinating their population- 100 million jabs in 85 days.
India was also quite active in providing vaccines through multilateral forums. 1 billion vaccine doses were provided to South-East Asia through Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD). India and South Africa have also been rallying for waving off all vaccine patents for the duration of the pandemic. Therefore, as pointed out by the Indian PM, India had conquered it all. It had got the pandemic in India under control and was completely focus on providing vaccines to various parts of the world. Thus, India had been doing every bit to gain a better image at the international front. But, this was all short-lived. The expectations that India had for itself couldn’t be achieved before it found itself in the second wave of the pandemic. The problem with the Indian Government was that it could never anticipate the second wave. Hence, zero efforts were being made for preparing themselves. On the other hand, Indian PM was repeatedly assuring everyone that India doesn’t need anyone’s help but is more than willing to help others. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2021, the Indian PM kept stressing on the success of India in saving the humanity from a huge crisis. He said that India has been able to fulfil its responsibility towards the global community.
Since, the Government was unaware there were no efforts at preparation. In fact, the Indian Government was busy preparing for all the upcoming international events like the ‘Raisina Dialogue Conference ‘on 13th April 2021, where the Indian PM at the Inaugural session said that India has “walked the talk” on helping the world counter this pandemic despite its limited resources, highlighting the vaccine manufacturing programme and export to various countries. PM Modi was addressing this summit at the same time when the cases per day in India were speedily increasing and there were some religious festivals being celebrated in North India allowing million of people to assemble and take a holy dip in the Ganges. There were also many high-level visits planned in the months of April and May 2021 that of the Rwandan President, the Danish PM, the British PM and the Japanese PM all of which had to cancel. Moreover, the Indian PM was tirelessly campaigning for election and taking part in huge rallies and assemblies where most of them were without masks, not following social distancing or using any protective measures.
Sincne the Indian Government had other priorities, it didn’t ramp up essential medical items and facilities like oxygen supply, hospital beds, pharmaceuticals etc. The government could have stopped export of those necessary items immediately and should have in fact started importing them required to handle to second wave of the pandemic. The vaccines export programme started in January 2021, a month earlier than the domestic vaccination programmes. Even when the second wave was at hand, India didn’t stop the export of the vaccines till mid-April. By the time India banned exports of vaccine, it had very few left for domestic use.
Moreover, the Indian Government could not handle international criticism efficiently. The government sharply reacted to the international media’s criticism of Indian government’s mishandling. The Ministry of External Affairs also got engaged in a spat with Embassies in Delhi who reached out to non-government group for assistance of essential items like oxygen cylinders.
Though, the vaccination programme for Indian citizens of 45 years and above had started towards February end, many are still not vaccinated. Many were unwilling to get vaccinated before the second wave due to lack of trust on the vaccines. Thus, the second wave put additional pressure on the government’s vaccination drive. In order to handle the additional pressure, the Government has increase the time gap between the first and second dose. If India wants to control the pandemic, it should first vaccinate its own people, then the rest. It can help its friendly countries only after overcoming the pandemic.
