IELTS/ PTE/TOEFL Writing Tasks, The Essay
Writing Task 2, Essay
The Essay Question:
Some people say that it is right for governments to legally enforce safety measures on people during an emergency situation. Others argue that people should be free to safeguard themselves without governmental directives.
Discuss both views and give your opinion.
The Essay :
The opinion of society pertaining to the role of governments and people in dealing with crisis is divided. While some believe that in a critical period, safety measures for citizens ought to be imposed by governments, yet others differ and opine that the populace must be permitted to choose ways to protect themselves.
Proponents of the view that people should be allowed to take care of themselves, argue that legal protective steps by governments in times of a calamity, would curtail their fundamental right of freedom. Additionally, forcefully making people do something, for example staying indoors during the outbreak of some rare fever or flu, would only cause discomfort. Besides, citizens are matured to decide what is good for them and hence laws are not needed.
On the contrary, the common man often does not comprehend the depth of the impending threat to life and the economy, in a catastrophic event. They generally have a narrow and myopic vision limited to their day to day life and survival. Their negligence can be harmful for a whole country.
Furthermore, during the emergence of a sudden life threatening crisis endangering national safety, security and growth, the requisite measures cannot be relegated as a choice of the people. The negative implications of such a free will could be far reaching and irreversible. For example, the current pandemic of virus that has fatalities in almost all nations, needs immediate preventive steps, which can be possible only with enforcement of laws.
To conclude, while few are of the opinion that people must have liberty to follow self preventive measures in situations of a calamity, according to me, in the larger interest of the nation, certain rules must be laid down by governments, applicable across all sections of the population.