A year after the WHO advisory to wear masks to prevent transmission, people still don't mask up. It is frustrating to see people brazenly flout the masking mandate. And one of the solutions has been to enforce by pretending to beat up people who are not masked. But is that what should be done?
However tempting it may seem, beating someone up for not wearing a mask is not the way to enforce mask wearing. Using violence to enforce anything is cannot be justified. Because once you normalize it, it will almost certainly be used to target the most vulnerable.
The vegetable vendor sitting on the pavement who pulls down her mask for 30 seconds to sip water gets beaten up.
The lady sipping a Starbucks venti is allowed to move maskless.
The driver who pulls down his mask because he is getting baked in the car park is beaten up.
His employer attends a meeting with 15 other maskless individuals in an air conditioned Board Room.
The orthopedically challenged person who's mask slips while he is trying to maneuver her wheelchair over a too narrow ramp is harassed.
The dude checking out his reflection on a storefront is ignored.
We are an inequitable society. It is the most vulnerable who are targeted.
Adhering to the mask mandate is important. But it is equally important not to give another reason to attack the marginalized.
"Sama, dama, dada, bheda", is the advice our ancestors give us. Though we had a year to communicate it, we have still not done a good job. Let us first exhaust the first two- awareness and incentives, before we think of moving to the next.
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