When the world was resting in peace with each one of us focusing on what the future holds for us, running through day today’s life with ups and downs in different forms for each one of us, no one knew life would come to a halt. With WHO declaring COVID-19 as a public health emergency in January 2020 and a global pandemic in March 2020, the lockdown measures were all over the place bringing life to a still. No sector of employment or service was prepared to deal with this devastating threat. SMAART Lab contributed to provide a shield to its members which were under its umbrella by developing a tangible intervention SMAART Rapid Tracker, a global informatics tool to analyze the spatiotemporal trends of COVID-19 incidence, prevalence, mortality and the impact of various policies and guidelines which were laid globally of international and national concerns. The tracker developed by Dr. Ashish Joshi served as a support for sustained employment for all the members who were associated with SMAART Lab even in times of COVID-19 when there were mass layoffs of employees everywhere. It not only provided economic support to each of its members when all the sectors were running short of the HR budget because of massive disruption in the economy but also served as a tool to provide protection from getting the infection by providing work from home opportunity for two years to all its team members. Being a public health research organization and when the public health employees were needed at the forefront, despite this fact the working prodigy was changed from offline to online and still was able to contribute to its core i.e. Public Health Research. It was indeed tailored depending on the needs considering various socioeconomic constraints of all the team members. As the team comprised more than 90% of women staff, the work from home opportunity was a bliss in such times when schools were shut for a long period to break the chain of transmission. It provided support to each member from different backgrounds, conditions and constraints in different forms.
When social distancing guidelines were recommended for a long time and the social life of all came to a halt, this tracker supported members by keeping them engaged in work, regular online meetings which kept their brain active even in social isolation, fear of getting infected and witnessing deep loss in society.
This also provided a platform to all for evidence-based information that contributed to the emerging infodemic as usage of social media saw a great surge which further led to the accentuation of the spread of misinformation. With the closure of educational institutions, lack of preparedness for online teaching prodigy and no virtual internship opportunities for students, the tracker also served as a contributor to the education sector by providing experiential learning opportunities to the students from different educational backgrounds. The participation in the tracker’s functioning virtually offered students learning opportunities in safe mode. SMAART Rapid tracker also served a booster for mental well-being when students were impacted highly with COVID-19 in the fear of losing time during their peak years of learning and productivity by wondering what life would bring next for them in their career. Social isolation too had impacted students to a great extent. The regular online meetings with the team for assignments, presentations kept them engaged and it turned fruitful for all when they got to experience learning in a complete virtual mode, making new friends online each sharing their challenges in such times.
This SMAART intervention was indeed a real solution to a real problem and has made a deep impact in the lives of all who were associated with it in one or the other way. All its outcomes can’t be quantified as it produced tangible and many non-tangible outcomes. This solution truly holds its roots in the SMAART Framework which fits in all the situation making any solution sustained, multisectoral, accessible, affordable, and tailored.
A deep gratitude to Dr. Ashish Joshi for his framework which has been developed to produce solutions for the health and well-being of all.
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