India needs help

and we should be giving it.

Yes, Downunder is sending some medical supplies and trying to help with more oxygen production for the pandemic but that is only a start. India needs more than that. 

I know people who will say "Well they shouldn't have so many children" and "Why did they let them have those religious festivals? They were super-spreader events."

It might surprise people to learn that the average number of children born to a woman in India is just 2.22. That really is not high. Yes it is higher than the 1.7 in Downunder and the 1.9 in the USA and much higher than the 0.9 in the UK. But a country like Niger has a rate of 6.9 - three times higher than India. I think we can forget the "so many children" argument.

The religious festivals are more difficult. Religion is difficult anywhere. Highly intelligent people can have what appear to others to be ridiculous religious beliefs. They often form a major part of someone's life and lifestyle. It isn't up to me to question what other people believe or try to change it. It is up to governments to suggest that large crowds are not the place to be during a pandemic but they could have other problems on their hands if they tried to cancel a festival. I mean, do we want to cancel Christmas? Yes we tried to keep church services low key or via Zoom or some other alternative but if we gathered in large crowds for a festival I think the government might have had more of a problem. 

And I am aware of other problems too. India has a growing middle class but many people still live in very close proximity to one another and in extended family groups. How do you stop a virus spreading in those circumstances? There are also many "migrant" workers - people who come from the rural areas to work in the cities and try to send money back home. Now that they don't have work they have gone - and spread the virus. How would you stop that when you don't have the social services some countries have? 

At the end of all this - and there will be an end of a sort - India is going to need more help. The economy will need help just as much as our economy needed help in the form of things like Job Keeper. We need to be aware of that. We need to start planning for it now.