Yesterday’s luxuries, today’s essentials in era of COVID-19

The Government must look at alternate ways to bridge the ballooning budget deficit by other means rather than slapping taxes on household appliances and other consumer durable goods, that were once luxury items, as an easy way to collect more money without giving much thought to its impact on the public, specially the rural and lower middle-class families who are struggling to make ends meet – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara 

A decade-and-a-half ago, we would not have expected a tuk-tuk driver, a fishmonger or a farmer to carry a smartphone; back then, these devices were considered luxuries that only a few could afford; however, today practically everyone has a smartphone, even if it were a leading Chinese manufactured smartphone brand – but, if it were not for these affordable options, smartphones and tablets would still remain in the hands of the ‘rich and affluent’.

When Sri Lankan authorities imposed the first lockdown in mid-March of 2020 as the only way to curtail the spread of the coronavirus and break the chain of transmission, nobody could have predicted or imagined the remarkable remoulding of established family dynamics and socioeconomic standards that were heavily reliant on social interaction. 

As the pandemic evolved, the transformation to the ‘new normal’ to contain the spread of the virus has been an exhausting adjustment and has seen a change to academic and work practices in many corporate and State sector enterprises and Government institutions that have had redesign their work practices by limiting or reducing face-to-face contact as an important action to mitigate the impact of the virus which in turn has placed an emphasis on connectivity, communication and smartphones at all levels society.

In line with the lockdown imposed by Sri Lankan authorities the Ministry of Education ordered the closure of all educational institutes to protect students from possible viral exposures, which are likely in a highly socialising student community – it was a move that disrupted the educational activities and academic calendars of a large number of students by creating an enormous challenge to learning.

New challenges 

However, unlike in the past, when schools closed the challenge revolutionised and transformed education in an entirely new way, from to face-to-face instruction and paper to digital, where educational institutes had to adopt online learning or eLearning as a necessary resource for students – not just for academics but has also extended to extracurricular activities to mitigate the effects of disrupted learning; yet, the question about the effectiveness of e-learning is clearly misunderstood, particularly in a developing country like Sri Lanka, where constraints like bandwidth availability, suitability and affordability of devices poses a serious challenge by disproportionally affecting people of lower socioeconomic status and laying bare inequities, specifically the uneven distribution of technology and access to information, a situation known as the digital divide.

An education necessity

In what has been recognised as the world’s largest educational crises and no clear sign of schools reopening soon, smartphones and internet access have become an ‘absolute’ necessity and costly affair for children to follow classes and has forced more low-income households already struggling with job loss and higher prices to scrape together their savings to purchase a cheap or second-hand smartphone and mobile data packages for their children to keep up, however, slow internet connections or limited access in rural areas has made online schooling a difficult task and contributed to students falling behind academically – the Government’s lack of long-term commitment to invest in a reliable and affordable digital infrastructure to provide access and encourage future competition has affected low-income and rural communities, due to the lack of devices and network connections.

Food security and COVID-19 

Due to restrictions during the extended lockdown most people including residents of rural areas were directed strictly to remain inside their homes – as a result, in most cases, many lost their means of earning their daily living; further, the closure of open-air village fairs, small food shops and restrictions on public transport added to the complexities of the situation and the interruption of the food supply chain – the overall situation made vulnerable people more vulnerable to a state of acute food insecurity due to a sudden drop in supply or access to food which in turn affected both the quality and quantity of food consumed whilst aggravating the precariousness of existing food and nutrition security, particularly in households with young children.

During the pandemic, the once seemingly luxurious refrigerator is at the forefront of many households as a source of security and stability by ensuring food security by extending the shelf life of perishable foods like fish, meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables and significantly reducing food waste whilst at the same time lowering consumers’ risk of infection by minimising trips to markets or shops during ongoing national shutdowns and lockdowns – especially as the virus disrupts supply chains.

Similarly, appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, cookers and other commonly used household appliances have never been more relevant in a world turned upside down in the face of the COVID-19 crisis – an analysis shows that, in many ways these appliances have been responsible for uplifting and maintaining food security, maintaining social distancing and confining people to their homes as an unprecedented means to achieve one common goal: slow the spread; therefore government must take urgent steps to push consumerism in order make such appliances them more affordable for everyone.

Will taxes be raised to pay for COVID-19 crisis?

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly created a perfect storm of crises that has resulted in widespread cuts in wages and job losses as a result of many businesses operating at reduced hours or closed across the economy and the Government’s inability to respond adequately to growing the needs brought about by a public health crisis layered over a high incidence of poverty and food insecurity that require much more than what currently exists as an emergency response.

Given the economy’s rapid decline and the extraordinary damage caused to the State budget by the pandemic the Government must look at alternate ways to bridge the ballooning budget deficit by other means rather than slapping taxes on household appliances and other consumer durable goods, that were once luxury items, as an easy way to collect more money without giving much thought to its impact on the public, specially the rural and lower middle-class families who are struggling to make ends meet.