It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...

Charles Dickens' words, written in 1859, keep getting quoted even during moments of despair. However, right now it’s difficult to subscribe to the positives in the quote. With the coronavirus pandemic threatening to scythe through the world's population, nation after nation is trying to fight it with all that they have.

The containment strategy's prime weapon is the isolation of people—from the family and household level to entire communities and cities with "lock-downs". Every nation is trying to minimise human contacts between citizens, and one is at times reminded of the famous scenes from the Hollywood epic Ben Hur, based on Lew Wallace's book, considered the most influential Christian novel.

The story, set in Christ's time, shows how Ben Hur's mother and sister are afflicted by leprosy, and the attitude of people towards leprosy. Hounded and thrown out of cities, they created their own sad and at times violent "isolation wards" in caves and jungles shunned by people.

The situation for us is not this bad. However, it may not be much better as well. The isolation route, though important, has already started to hurt the economy. And this impact will soon be felt in the rural and rurban sector the hardest. According to the 2011 Census, India then had a workforce of 47.41 crore of which 33.69 crore were rural. Of the total rural workforce 35.3 per cent were casual. Which implies that if economic activity comes to a grinding halt, a huge population will be without any source of earning for a long time.

Given the fact that working in agriculture and related areas requires an intense degree of physical interaction— something the government is trying to prevent—their earnings will be jeopardised as of course by quantum, this sector will be the hardest hit. However, these would be the case for many others across India. These are early days and a guesstimate will not be proper now. But one thing is for sure: the coming days will be unprecedentedly tough — a time of hardship that our generation hasn’t experienced. One hopes that this anxiety is belied by the events in the coming days.

Stay safe and united in this crisis. Let’s fight it out together and abide by the advice put out by the government from time to time.