Udbodh Bhandari

The COVID-19 pandemic has crippled almost every sphere of life, with devastating socio-economic repercussions on the entire society. Still the health crisis has offered an opportunity to digitise all areas of service delivery, thereby helping to form a robust digital social system. A social system is a patterned network of relationships between individuals, groups, and institutions that form a rational whole. A person can be a member of several social systems at the same time. Social media, one of the core components of the digital social system, are playing a pivotal role in maintaining, sustaining, and updating the digital social system. Social media encompasses a wide range of popular platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, blogging platforms, WeChat, and Whatsapp. How the digital social system can work in the pandemic is critically discerned here with its pros and cons.
International organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United States’ Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have guided and recommended the implementation of an online healthcare system in each of the global governance systems in this chaotic situation of health hazard. More importantly, telehealth is a viable option for combating the COVID-19 outbreak. Telehealth services can play a prominent role in disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and control. Telehealth, defined as the remote delivery of health care services through the use of information and communication technology, includes video conferencing, telephone, text, email, and online patient portals.
This is gradually becoming more common in general practice in many European, American, and Australian societies. Despite these global facts, digital culture is yet to take root in Nepal, and therefore, it is seemingly miles away to practise telehealth. In this sense, concerned authorities, line ministries, and community of clinicians and physicians need to take the initiative to promptly apply telehealth practices in Nepal. Legal infrastructure can be developed fortnightly if all the stakeholders realise the immediate need for telehealth.

Impact
COVID-19 has broken down traditional barriers, making way for digital transformation in businesses with new modes of human capital involved in production and distribution processes. Millions of people have been able to work from home, allowing government services, businesses, and non-profit organisations to continue operating with the support from messaging and conferencing platforms like Zoom, Skype, Whatsapp, and software like GoogleDrive. In Nepal, the pandemic has provided an opportunity for businesses and governments to streamline and digitise their processes, which will eventually help them stand stronger and more resilient in similar situations in the future. However, erratic internet access, bandwidth, and internet speed may be major concerns for employees working from home.
The education sector has been worst-hit by COVID-19, with the closures of schools and colleges for indefinite period. By April 2020, over 1.6 billion students in 192 countries, accounting for 90 per cent of students globally, attended scheduled and restricted online classes from their home. Access to technology for students and schools, particularly in public schools and colleges, will be extremely crucial in reducing the digital education gap. In Nepal too, most of the students depend on online classes. Zoom, Microsoft Team, and Google Meets have been effective tools for social interaction and ongoing education. However, large masses of children residing in remote and rural areas of Nepal do not have access to the internet or laptops or desktops, so they are falling behind in their education, leading to digital poverty and digital illiteracy. So there are the needs for the policy and technological interventions at the federal and provincial government levels to bridge the digital gap.
It is widely acknowledged that the pandemic has amplified social and economic inequalities. In many countries, there is a significant disparity in access to and utilisation of digital opportunities between men and women, rich and poor, urban and rural. In Nepal too, a significant digital divide between those who have access to such tools and those who do not is apparent. Many schools and colleges are ill-equipped to transition to online teaching and limited internet access to underprivileged students is seen to be detrimental to their fundamental right to an education. Therefore, there are long-term challenges to the global and local communities that go beyond pandemics and digitalisation: issues of poverty and inequality, health and education, security and the environment, racism and political polarisation – issues that the Sustainable Development Goals and other international agreements address.

Future prospects
During the pandemic, guidelines, protocols and standard operating procedures are being shared at an unprecedented rate with social media serving as an effective vehicle. Contrary to these situations, new media has also attracted flood of misinformation and disinformation, rumours and deliberate distortions that would have the opposite effect of messages on COVID-19. It is difficult for individuals to navigate the vast array of content now available, determining what is trustworthy and what is not. To a great possible extent, the WHO warned of an 'infodemic,' - a risk that it would inundate public communications in the crisis.
Furthermore, during the lockdown, it has become clear how important a secure and continuous digital environment is. During the pandemic, there is the issue of cybersecurity. Nevertheless, in Nepal, there is no effective way to regulate how information is released and distributed in social media. It is imperative that both the federal and provincial governments hammer out the policy for wider digitalisation of essential sectors and enact cybersecurity law in an encompassing manner.
(Bhandari, a social development specialist, is involved in development and research projects. aruudbodh@gmail.com)