India’s crisis
India, one of the largest nations in the world with a widerange in wealth levels in its people who are spread across many states andunion territories in a more or less decentralised system of governance isfacing a credibility crisis in addition to the pandemic which is relentlesslydevastating family after family.
Talking about the novel Coronavirus, India is under thesecond wave and the rate of infections and the deaths due to same hasoverwhelmed the nation’s health and last rites infrastructure.
The hospitals, both state-run and private, are occupiedbeyond their capacity, oxygen – which is critical for the survival of thepatients – is running low all across the country, patients breathing their lastoutside hospitals waiting for a doctor – India has a grave situation on itshands.
Further, as the article by New York Times claims, there is ahigh probability that the number of deaths exceeds what is being reported bythe government authorities.
The Indian government reports more than 3 lakh newinfections per day and this is almost half of the new infection cases all overthe world.
Scared, may be people should be
Experts opine that the nation was doing well in its handlingof the pandemic and this caused the people to lower their guard.
But now, the piece by New York Times claims that millions ofIndians are so scared of the pandemic that they are refusing to step outsidetheir homes.
The sudden surge in the devastation by the pandemic in Indiais believed to be because of a new variant - B.1.617. This variant, expertsbelieve, is not only fast spreading but also difficult to control.
This is so because the new mutation contains geneticsignature which is also found in two other difficult-to-control mutations. Oneof these is the one that ravaged California earlier this year and the other oneis the South African variant.
Vaccination drive nothing to write home about
To make a worse situation even more difficult to salvage,the nation’s vaccination drive is limping along.
The story by New York Times claims that even less than 10%of Indians have got single dose of the vaccine. This fact stands in thebackground of the nation being one of the leading vaccine manufacturers in theworld.
A side effect of the deteriorating condition in India isthat poorer nations to whom India had promised millions of doses are now basicallyleft high and dry.
Though, the nation is at the receiving end too with nationslike USA and China refusing to supply raw material required for the productionof the vaccines.
Discrepancies with ground reality?
There are reasons that a common man in India is forced toconsider the possibility that their elected government may be cooking the booksas far the pandemic crisis is concerned.
The experts too are worried that the numbers which thegovernment is reporting, though horrendous in themselves, may possiblyrepresent only a fraction of the actual victims.
Further, the photographs of crematoriums and cemeteries allover the nation being published by national dailies are screaming in the faceof sanity – how can these piles of dead bodies not be accounted for in therecords of the government?
The government’s claim is of deaths due to Covid around 2lakh and the number of deaths per day around 2,000.
Ground reality at crematoriums and cemeteries of India
Bhopal was the site of a devastating gas leak and theincident cut short the lives of thousands of individuals. The cremation groundsof the city claim that they have not been as busy as they are now since thatdisaster.
Taking about specifics, over 13 days in mid-April, theofficials of the city reported 41 Covid deaths. However, a survey of thecrematoriums and cemeteries revealed a total death count of more than 1,000during the same period.
The question then arises could the contribution of Covid inthe deaths be less than 5%?
A doctor in Bhopal claims that many deaths are not beingrecorded because the officials do not want to create a panic. The doctorfurther claims that the number of deaths is increasing daily.
A similar pattern was observed in other places includingUttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
Indian dailies have conducted their research and theirpublished findings corroborate the notion that a serious underreporting of theextent of infections and deaths due to Corona is being undertaken.
But why?
The reasons for this are many. The government may beoperating under a political interest to portray an image of order and progressin the handling of the pandemic. This could explain the authorities not writingthe cause of death as Corona for dead bodies where applicable in a cremationground in Gujarat.
The hospitals too appear to be playing a willing role insuppressing or misrepresenting information. The piece by New York Times claimsthat a private hospital fudged the cause of death from Corona to “suddencardiac death” because the reason was oxygen supply suddenly dropping for Covidpatients. What could be the motivation for a private hospital to do so?
The family members and relatives of the deceased toosometimes shy away from labelling their lost one as one dying from Corona toavoid the strict Covid guidelines for last rites. Further, some people mayharbour a guilt that they lost a family member because something was lacking intheir care.