Most Indians have been under lockdown for weeks; Athira Elssa Johnson has been home for over two years. Here's why.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Even now, amidst COVID-19, there are many reports of stigma and violence coming up.
00:05This is hatred, and this is dangerous.
00:17COVID-19 is a major healthcare crisis where everyone is trying to correlate to the situation.
00:24That was not the case with patients like me and others in similar situations.
00:29This entire time we were here too.
00:38Tuberculosis is attached with a lot of stigma.
00:41The slightest one being, I was stared at during the hospital visits for daily injections,
00:47probably because I was wearing a mask.
00:49There were fluctuations on my body weight.
00:53Some of the side effects were quite visible.
00:55It affected my skin very bad.
00:57I couldn't walk proper.
00:58So when I took the responsibility of confining myself to a room,
01:02wearing a mask, I did not see a world kind enough to understand that.
01:15It's like the rest of the world is on a fast pace,
01:21and you are there, stagnant and stuck in another one.
01:26Something only people associated with this understand.
01:34The only time I used to go out was to the hospital,
01:38but that time was enough for me to experience.
01:41Productivity guilt is the result of a design
01:46that's perfected for and by the privileged and the abled.
01:49There is a coming together of all the stereotypes, stigma and violence in the present.
01:55And this is why at times we feel that we are dangerously unprepared for a difficult time like this.
02:11Why it's important for us to educate about isolation is because it's not just one simple word.
02:17It's got its vicious tentacles.
02:20It's not just about staying in our cosy homes and safe spaces.
02:25It's not just an issue of this particular time.
02:28It's about other deadly illnesses as well.
02:31It's about healthcare as a whole.
02:33It's about centering social and economic justice and giving political power to people.
02:38Social and economic justice and giving political attention to it.
02:43This is not just about convincing ourselves to stay at home in our privileged spaces.
02:50It is having a memory of this further.
02:53Overwhelming the system to make it possible for us to afford a difficult situation like this.
03:01To be acute, leaving no one behind.