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In this new, developing parlance of containment clusters, disease hotspots, super spreaders, overcrowded hospitals, inadequate testing kits, plasma therapies, and economic slowdown – all borrowed from the west – there is this one key-word that has not only managed to stand out but has traveled worldwide as a success story – The Kerala Model.

Outshining the Other States

In late January, Kerala was the first Indian state to report a COVID-19 case – a medical student from none other than Wuhan, China, and before the Prime Minister announced the nation-wide lockdown it held the demeaning distinction of highest cases in India. The second highest cases were in neighboring Maharashtra.

Given the high number of expatriates, a whole community of students studying in China, and a multitude of foreign tourist arrivals in the state, Kerala had found itself in a precarious situation right from the word go. On 30th March total recorded cases in Kerala were 234 following it cheek by jowl was Maharashtra with 220 cases – Mumbai accounting for most of them.

Two months on, Maharashtra has displaced Kerala as the state with the highest number of cases but the devil lies in the details.

Today (26th May) Mumbai, accounts for 31,972 confirmed cases which are more than 33 times the total tally of 964 cases in Kerala. Kerala exhibits the lowest fatality rate (0.53%) in the country with only six deaths. In comparison, Mumbai and Delhi alone have seen 1026 and 288 people succumbing to the infection respectively.

The southernmost state is among the few in the country which has turned the corner in “flattening the curve” by increasing recoveries to more than the active cases. Kerala sports a whooping 542 recoveries as of today which is a recovery rate of above 50%. The recoveries include a 92-year-old man and his 88-year-old wife.

Before the influx of foreign migrants and seafarers, on May 1st it had first time seen zero new cases in a single day and backed it up again for two consecutive days and even after the huge influx of people from middle-east, it has precluded any precipitous rise in total infections.

Early Measures

More than the result it is its modus operandi that makes Kerala rank head and shoulders above its companion states. Its approach to the pandemic has been pretty straightforward.

The CPI(Marxist) government has focused profoundly on the earliest detection of cases accompanied by extensive testing and contact tracing and mandatory 28-day quarantine for the infected.

This is double to the pan-Indian instructions of 14-day quarantine based on recommendations made by the World Health Organisation.

Kerala’s proactive approach was conspicuous right from the beginning. The state issued its first alert about a possible outbreak on 18th January, well before the rest of the world; and unlike the rest of India, it screened all international passengers for any symptoms of the foreign virus, swiftly undergirded with isolations and quarantines.

The government declared COVID-19 as a state-level disaster as early as on 4th February amidst a total case tally of less than 15.

A day before WHO declared the Coronavirus a pandemic, Kerala had shut down all educational institutions, entertainment centers, had banned large gatherings, and even started insinuating lockdowns only to be followed by the rest of the country weeks later. The state’s strong health system took the baton from here and mitigated any widespread outbreak in the state.

A strong public communication was maintained throughout these times, thus inhibiting any suffusion of fake news or panic in the state. The state was firmly buttressed by volunteer support and an active student community that augmented the government’s reach to rural areas as well.

It was the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) which is at the forefront of India’s battle against the outbreak which lauded the state for its “unparalleled” strategies and penned the phrase – “Kerala Model”.

The Model

Terming the success of one of India’s most densely populated state in tackling the world’s most scathing and contagious pandemic as a bliss and monumental rise will be demeaning for the foundation of the Kerala Model was laid, successively through many decades, before and after the independence.

Kerala not only stands out for its greenery but is also unique in the Indian Union for the significant amount of funds allocated by the state governments for the Education and Health sectors. Thus, its top rankings in literacy rates, sex ratio, women empowerment, and welfare schemes for the marginalized are for everyone to see.

The pre-eminence given to Education and Health infrastructure has its roots going as deep as the early 19th century. The four prominent actors of Kerala’s history – the churches, the progressive Maharajas of Cochin and Travancore, various caste associations, and the political parties – all had based their influence and growth on education and health facilities.

The basis for the state's impressive health standards lies in its infrastructure of primary health centers. There are over 2,700 government medical institutions in the state, with 330 beds per 100,000 people, the highest in the country.

The God’s own country perfectly epitomizes India’s religious and caste-based diversity. Over the years, it was the policies of this quartet that undermined the country’s most unsparingly prejudiced caste system and willed the state on the path of equality and progress.

The state’s communist political nature has against all odds, blended ravishingly within the democratic spectrum of the country while maintaining its better practices of socialism, public power, land reform, and above all – equality; all playing their parts in better living conditions of its people.

Kerala in the early 1990s was one of the few states which devolved administrative power and resources to Panchayats and local governments and was among the fewer still which relinquished resources as much as it did. The result? You won’t find someone starving or even begging in the whole state as you do in Mumbai or Delhi.

Keralans have been very active in politics as well. With over 80% turnout in India’s first-ever elections and their own highly competitive state political structure the people of Kerala have been showing their pragmatic approach to their rights and duties for quite some time now.

This social and material progress is being carried forward by every generation and has resulted in a great amount of community participation and public cooperation that has come in handy in precarious times before – like during the Nipah outbreak – and is proving its worth today as well.

Humanity Above Economy

Even before the Central government announced its lockdown and made movement stringent, Kerala already had its financial package laid out for the distressed. Reports of the State Police’s support and compassion in home-delivering food to the needy, governments psychological support to the vulnerable and schools delivering meals to the students in lockdowns have been most abundant from this part of the country.

When the rest of the country was not providing for its migrants and was letting them trudge thousands of kilometers, Kerala provided them food, shelter and kept contact with them in their native languages to give them a choice between a respectful stay and a walk home. About 70% of the relief camps being run for migrant workers in the country are in Kerala only.

When the rest of the country was trying to tweak labor laws to “lure foreign investments”, Kerala was providing its labor class with food and respect. Even with strained center-state relations and crunched fiscal purses, Kerala didn’t forget its humanity.

Recognition

Not surprisingly, this impressive track record has earned the attention of the world. Recently, acknowledged newspapers like The Washington Post and The Guardian credited the "robust response" of Kerala to the Coronavirus pandemic.

More recently, State’s Health minister Ms. K.K Shailaja who has seen heartily response from all over the world was invited to a BBC news channel, World News to share the success story of Kerala in tackling the pandemic.

An Example

When the world talks about the South Korea Model, the Germany Model, and even the Taiwan Model we Indians simply resonate with it. We are ready to learn lessons from countries that are not one percent as densely populated as us and not even close to our diversity in class, religion, and caste. We might be missing a trick here by not learning from and propagating what’s right under our nose.

Kerala Model should be an example for the world but first, it should be an example for Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Gujrat and rest of the country, first the Health Minister of Kerala should be invited to host seminars with us and our newspapers, first, the Kerala Model should be part of our talks and then the rest of the world.

Kerala has more religious diversity than any other state in India and still, its media manages to focus on what’s important rather than what “sells”.

Even though states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar might not be able to replicate Kerala’s long-worked success today but they must start somewhere because this is not the first pandemic and is definitely not the last. Kerala today has a lesson for each one of us and the country as a whole.

Written by - Rudransh Khurana

Edited by - Arnav Mehra