Spreading positivity

Spreading positivity

From scaremongering to caremongering, people are banding together to fight coronavirus blues.

With the coronavirus pandemic causing alarm across the world, news of gloom and doom abounds. And as mentioned in the editorial above, fake news on social media has only added to the scaremongering. However, even in these trying times, groups of good Samaritans are banding together to turn scaremongering into caremongering. It started in Canada where groups started to help those within their communities who were more at risk from coronavirus. Volunteers reach out to the elderly, those with disabilities, single mothers and other vulnerable groups to help them get access to daily essentials and medicines.

With #caremongering trending, it sparked a global movement that also reached India. Young people across Indian cities are signing on to the caremongers collective to bring relief to those under lockdown. They are delivering milk, checking on the elderly parents of those abroad, and providing assistance to those with pre-existing medical conditions. Such acts of kindness not only help those who need it the most but also counter the negativity that can so easily pervade such extraordinary circumstances.

In fact, caremongering is setting emulation worthy examples of altruism and building positive connections in society. It is creating empathy that is so crucial to tiding over these stressful times. With 80 districts across the country already under lockdown, citizens have to band together and look out for each other. Acts of kindness can dispel despair and counter unnecessary panic. They can also soothe anxiety and depression engendered by isolation. They help the volunteers too, who may otherwise have suffered from a sense of enforced idleness and acquire a sense of purpose. Hopefully, some of the social connections and sense of altruism and community created by the caremongering movement will spill over into normal times as well, when such lockdowns are no longer necessary.