Beyond Heartbreak - COVID-19 Crisis in India by Ariel Foundation International / Ariana-Leilani Children's Foundation

COVID19 CRISIS IN INDIA:

Situation Beyond

HEARTBREAKING

Dr. M Shahid Siddiqui

Published by: Ariel Foundation International (AFI)- With Special Consultative ECOSOC Status with the United Nations

Researched by: Association For Community Research & Action (ACRA)

978 1 7346475 9 4 -

ISBN -

Situation Beyond

Overview

Photo: Live Infograph of Covid19 Cases in India (May 01, 2021)

ovid’s cruellest month yet in India ended with another global record, as daily cases crossed an unprecedented 4,00,000 on Friday April 30, 2021, while a staggering 6.9 million (69 lakh) new infections were detected in the country during April, the highest tally for any month in any country so far.

A deadly second wave of coronavirus infections is devastating India, leaving millions of people infected and putting stress on the country’s already overtaxed health care system. Of cially, more than 17.9 million infections have been con rmed in April and more than 200,000 people have died, but experts say the actual gures are likely much higher. In the same period, India has been responsible for more than half of the world’s daily COVID-19 cases, setting a record-breaking pace of more than 300,000 a day till the last day of the month April 2021.

Shortage of Oxygen and Hospital beds Leaves Patients Scrambling

verwhelmed by new cases, Indian hospitals cannot cope with the demand, and patients in many cities have been abandoned to die. Today itself on Saturday, (April 30), families of at least 15 Covid-19 patients who died within 24 hours at a private hospital in UP’s Moradabad said it was because the facility ran out of oxygen.

Photo: A Mother Carry the Dead Body of Her Daughter in Auto-rickshaw

Clinics across the country have reported an acute shortage of hospital beds, medicines, protective equipment, ambulances and oxygen.

DISCRIMINATORY HEALTHCAR

e are again witnessing migrant workers leaving cities amid political apathy. Funeral pyres are burning on footpaths and walls are being erected around cremation grounds.The denial of

Photo: A Covid Patient is Praying To God For Help

deaths by the government and the silence of the media is on show too. However, the already marginalised pay a much greater price

Muslims are much more vulnerable to the medical poverty trap and the recent changes in the country have made them more vulnerable than others

INEQUALITY AND COVID-1 According to reports, while 78% of the Indian population resides in rural areas, only two per cent of medical professionals are available in those areas. A second wave and new lockdowns have sent people scurrying for services

Rural India Lives in Fear as COVID-19 Spreads to Villages, Claiming Live

ith more than a lakh active COVID-19 cases in Bihar as on Friday, rural areas are fully under the grip of the novel coronavirus this year, unlike during the rst wave last year. COVID-19 has already claimed lives in hundreds of villages on a daily basis but the news has either been suppressed or hardly gets any space. The media's entire focus has been on urban areas, particularly Patna, despite the fact that the Oxygen supply crisis continues and the lack of hospital beds is forcing even critical or serious patients to move from one place to another for treatment to survive. However, few are lucky.

What is alarming is that at a time when COVID-19 cases are rising and spreading in rural areas, the state government has not initiated special measures for thousands of migrant workers who have returned to their native villages. Besides Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttarpradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh is also reporting much higher peaks than reported earlier

Photo: In Jaunpur, UP, Poor’s dead body was not allowed to cremate in the village. Husband carries the dead body of his wife in search of a place cremation .

Of cially, more than 17.9 million infections have been con rmed in April and more than 200,000 people have died, but experts say the actual gures are likely much higher. In the same period, India has been responsible for more than half of the world’s daily COVID-19 cases, setting a record-breaking pace of more than 400,000 a day.

Hiding Covid-19 Deaths Are Endangering India’s Health Respons

s the health minister claims India’s Covid-19 death toll is among the world’s lowest, we found the count from crematoria in six cities—Patna, Kanpur, Jamnagar, Morbi, Rajkot and Porbandar—in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar between three to 30 times higher than of cial death tolls.

The Gujarat government’s database shows that 158 died of Covid-19 in Jamnagar since the rst death there in April 2020. Another of cial at the Adarsh crematorium, refusing to identify himself, said they had cremated 1500

bodies following Covid-19 protocols over 2020 As India’s health minister Harsh Vardhan claimed on 29 April that India has one of the world’s lowest Covid-19 death rates, evidence collected by Article 14 from crematoria across six cities in Gujarat, Uttar P r a d e s h a n d B i h a r — P a t n a , K a n p u r, Jamnagar, Morbi, Rajkot and Porbandar— revealed that funerals conducted under Covid-19 protocols ranged from three to even 30 times higher of cial death tolls. Across the six cities as investigated, crematoria were working through the night, adding more pyres and hiring more workers to manage the unprecedented rush of bodies since the beginning of April

The Dangers Of Fudging Death Dat

n 28 April, India crossed two statistical landmarks—more than 3,000 deaths daily for the rst time, as the of cial toll exceeded 200,000 dead—even as it recorded over 360,000 new infections

These are quite clearly underestimations. Many infections are not counted, as experts have pointed out; testing has been falling as cases rise. The of cial death toll is clearly an undercount, as our investigations—and a ood of others have revealed.

With crematoria full and waiting times stretch into days, bodies have been cremated on pavements, in parking lots and in parks. With videos and stories chronicling these scenes, supporters of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have called

Photo: Dead bodies are being cremated on pavements and parks.

journalists “vultures” and pushed the narrative that such reportage spreads “negativity”. But, as experts said, under-reporting is likely to cause an underestimation of the spread of the disease and hamper the ability of India’s already overwhelmed healthcare system to respond to a possible third wave of infections, which Maharashtra is anticipating “The problem with underreporting is that you can't understand what's happening, you also can't predict what's going to happen next.And you also can't respond.”

What Is Happening In Six Cities: A Fact Finding Repor

Article 14 interviewed of cials in at least one major cremation or burial ground in each of the six cities as mentioned, spoke to locals and local journalists and found little sign of a coherent government plan or response.

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In Gujarat’s Morbi district, known for its ourishing ceramic industry, the trustee of a crematorium said the district was seeing 30-40 deaths a day since early April, while the government claims only 75 deaths have occured due to Covid-19 since last year.

In Porbandar, a coastal district where Mahatma Gandhi was born, it was found 30 deaths per day at one crematorium, while the government reported only two deaths in April and six since last year. Crematoria reported they handled double the number of bodies every day in April

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In Kanpur, the largest city of Uttar Pradesh, government records show 9 and 13 Covid-19 deaths on 23 and 24 April respectively, when crematoria reported seven times that number.

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These cities are from BJP-administered states where local and national media have repeatedly found underreporting. In each case, we found a vast gulf between reality and of cial data:

None of these above is re ected in of cial data, and while underreporting is evident nationwide, the most egregious examples, appear to be coming in general, from states governed by the BJP and, in particular, Gujarat.

The Case Of Gujarat And Other Central Ruling Party (BJP) State

ujarat’s data fudge has attracted national attention because reporters of local media have positioned themselves outside hospitals and crematoria and literally counted bodies to reveal the truth.

On 23 April, the Sandesh newspaper reported that 765 had died in seven Gujarat cities. The of cial toll was 90. Earlier that month, its reporters, waiting outside the dedicated Covid-wing of the Ahmedabad civil hospital, counted 63 bodies carried out, while the government claimed a death toll of 20 for that day.

Gujarat “stands out ” underreporting Covid-19 deaths.

The approach that Modi’s BJP government at the Centre adopted towards West Bengal, early in 2020, when it sent an “InterMinisterial Central Team” to the state for a fortnight and publicly chastised the government for “discrepancy” in its Covid death gures, after which the state revised its tally from 15 to 57. This led to a welcome ‘reconciliation’ in West Bengal’s Covid fatality data

But there was certainly no sign of any central agency ying in and chastising the Gujarat government for manipulating death data, or asking it to add the missing deaths back into the of cial numbers. This may have re ected a different approach to NDA (National Democratic Alliance) and non-NDA ruled states. But it also signalled a change of approach, by condoning obvious manipulation of data. Ultimately it led to an environment where weak disease surveillance and data manipulation were rewarded

In at least two states, Gujarat and Haryana, chief ministers have defended underreporting. Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani, on 19 April, admitted that the state was not recording all deaths of Covid-19 patients, claiming the state was following guidelines “stipulated by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR)”—not recording the deaths of patients with comorbidities as Covid-19 deaths

Patna, Kanpur, Meerut: Govt Data Contradicts Itsel

bout 1,700 km to the east of Rajkot, at the Bans Ghat electric crematorium in Patna, the of cial data put out the government—110 deaths between 20-26 April, with 655 Covid-19 deaths since 2020, the worst-hit city in Bihar—are irrelevant.

The crematorium has been receiving between 40 and 50 bodies a day of those

who died of Covid-19, said the of cial who oversees cremations For instance, on 26 April, of cial (who oversees cremations) said, the crematorium (there are two more in Patna) saw 44 cremations of Covid-infected bodies, while the state government’s daily bulletin said only 16 had died of the disease citywide. On April 25, 48 bodies came in; of cial data that day for the city said 23 had died of Covid-19 In neighbouring UP, the data mismatch in Kanpur, of cially the second worst-hit city after Lucknow, is similar. A social worker who cremates unclaimed bodies, said his team had helped cremate 40-50 bodies under Covid-protocols each day since mid-April Of cial data contradict one another.

For instance, on 23 April, when of cials reported nine Covid-19 dead, 77 bodies were cremated with Covid-19 protocols, according to a local journalist. The next day, 88 bodies were cremated with Covid-19 protocols, but the government said only 13 people had died of the disease

f the Adityanath government (Uttar Pradesh Govt.) is to be believed, between April 19 and April 30, no more than 36 people died of Covid in Meerut, one of Uttar Pradesh’s most populous districts. However, the register maintained by Surajkund crematorium, Meerut’s largest, recorded 264 cremations of those who had succumbed to Covid in the same period. The register, accessed by Newslaundry, shows that on April 23, the day the district’s chief medical of cer reported zero Covid deaths, the crematorium recorded 29 Covid cremations out of 52 cremations in total The Adityanath government also reported zero deaths on April 19, when the crematorium recorded 13. On April 29, when the facility cremated 34 people who had died of Covid, out of total 75 cremations, the district administration attributed only ve deaths to the rampaging disease

On April 30, Uttar Pradesh reported 332 Covid deaths, taking the state’s fatality count

to 12,570. The same day, 34,626 people tested positive for the virus, of cially

Largest Death Variations In Gujarat’s Small Town The under-reporting of data is especially glaring in the smaller towns of Gujarat

Photo: COVID19 Dashboard of the Government of Gujarat

For instance, Porbandar (population: 585,000) is, on paper, one of the leastaffected districts in the country. According to Gujarat government data, only six have died

of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 However, at a Porbandar crematorium run by the Manav Sena charitable trust, of cials said that had been cremating double that number every day. “Since the beginning of this month, we are receiving an average of at least 10 Covid bodies each day,” said a trust of cial Similarly, in Gujarat’s central district of Morbi, a trustee of the Morbi-Panjrapole Hindu Crematorium, said they were cremating between 30 and 40 bodies under Covid-19 protocol since early April According to government data, Covid-19 claimed no more than 75 since 2020 in Morbi. On 27 April, the government said three people had died from Covid-19 and ve the previous day

The trustee said their crematorium was cremating about 15 bodies every day, about half under Covid-19 protocols, than of cial

data claimed for the entire district. He argued even these data were “spurious”. “If you get into each case, you will nd most of these non-Covid deaths are also, somewhere, caused by it (the disease), said the trustee. “Like patients who were discharged from hospitals after being infected with the virus and then, developed post-Covid conditions that led to their death.

Can’t Hide The Bodie

Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh performed the last rites of 141 bodies under Covid-19 protocols in two ”

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In Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, the New Indian Express found that 108 people had been cremated with Covid-19 protocols in 24 hours when the government claimed only 8 people had died

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These ndings from six different cities are not isolated and are mirrored nationwide by media who have found rampant fudging and under-reporting

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Dainik Bhaskar’s Rohtak edition in Haryana reported that the city’s crematoriums were operating through the night and a new crematorium has opened. The paper reported that on 22 April, 23 people were cremated with Covid-19 protocols while government data recorded 11 deaths since 1 April.

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In Agra, UP, crematorium workers said that they had “stopped counting the bodies” and that they were not able to cremate all bodies despite running the facility for 20 hours a day, the Telegraph r e p o r t e d . O n t h a t d a y, t h e U P government said Covid-19 claimed six lives.

In Ghaziabad, UP, crematoria that used to see 15 bodies a day are now seeing nearly 50, the Hindustan Times reported. Unable to cope, pyres are being constructed even on pavements.

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cremation grounds and three cemeteries between 14 April and 28 April, the Dainik Bhaskar found. The of cial death count: 13.

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In UP’s capital, Lucknow, NDTV reported widespread underreporting. On 13 April, the of cial toll was 18, but 86 bodies were cremated; on 12 April, the of cial toll was 21, but 86 bodies were cremated; and on 10 April the toll was 23, but 59 bodies were cremated

A local caretaker of a Muslim graveyard con rmed Lucknow’s underreporting. “Since 1 April we have buried 53 bodies of those declared dead with COVID and around 600 non-covid bodies,” said the caretaker, on 27 April. “But even the non-Covid deaths are unusually high,” Caretaker said. “We would usually see ve to six burials a day. Now we are dealing with about 20.” Lucknow district’s of cial death toll is UP’s highest: 1,700 since the pandemic began in 2020 and over 150 in the city alone since 20 April

Recommendation : We Can Do?

We can strengthen and enhance the ow of Charities, volunteers and delivery mechanism in India who are trying to help the country’s COVID victims and frontline workers on their own. Vaccination Support and Awareness: We NEED to encourage everyone eligible to get vaccinated at the earliest. We sincerely hope that these measures and our support in a small way will be of a great help to them in the current situation

About the Author

r. M Shahid Siddiqui is a promising media and d e v e l o p m e n t professional with great skills and knowledge in the digital media and social development sector. He is also a Campaigner for Human Rights, added to his amazing work as a journalist.

Dr. M Shahid Siddiqui

His quali cations include a certi cate in "Leadership" which he acquired from the International Academy For Leadership (IAF), Gummersbach in Germany, as well as a certi cate in "Social Media Marketing Campaign" from University of Leeds-Institute of Coding and another certi cate in Internet Governance & Policy (Asia-Paci c) from Internet Society based in Washington. With such amassed knowledge, it is not surprising to know that Dr. Shahid has also worked in the media industry, with di erent producers and directors in various documentaries and commercials and also feature lms, until his eventual role as a journalist for the national TV News Channel, IBN7 (Network18). Throughout the past twenty years, he has thoroughly attempted to remake and reshape the conviction and structure of society. The embodiment of his work lies in developing substitute viewpoints, regardless of the region and method of working. His procedure all through this excursion has been to remain exible in overseeing issues and not to stay xed. He has broadly traversed India and abroad.

As a Campaigner for Human Rights and Peace, Dr. Shahid has worked with both the government and private sectors to push for

his belief in sustainable development, and he has made strides in this. It is his strong belief that activism requires colossal measure of work in the eld just as in research yet what is generally fundamental for him is to guarantee correctness inside the community and disperse data in the most basic manner conceivable that quickly portrays the situation which includes most complex circumstances, intense dealings and requests. His career for the years that have passed has more than proven that Dr. Shahid is a truly passionate and hard-working, dedicated and focused man with the attributes that qualify him as a leader and pioneer in various elds. His contribution in these elds also rely on an ability that is rare; the ability to combine both the private, civil and government sectors to create solutions which bene t all involved. Dr. Shahid has an in-depth knowledge on CSR and sustainability in the global, especially Indo-African landscape including latest trends in the social media age. His vast knowledge as shown in his last book “Untold Digi-Story: Life In Lockdown-An Encounter With Volatile Digital World”, is indispensable. He can be reached via email at shahid.journ@gmail.com. Or Via Twitter @shahidsiddiqui

About The Contributors & Editors;

Dr. Ariel King

r. Ariel King is a Rotarian for over 20 years with the main representative status at the United Nations (Geneva, New York and Vienna ) for AFI, with Special Economic, Cultural and Social Council Special (ECOSO). She has vast experience

in development sector working with Not for Pro t Organisations in Geneva and the United Nations in Vienna (UNOV) since 2010 and United Nations in New York since 2000. Beside this Dr. King is also an NGO Representative at the European Parliament focussing on inspiring leadership and participation of worlds’ children and youth. She has advance certi cation in the study of Children’s Human Rights, from the UER Droits de l'enfant/ Children's Rights Unit, Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch (IUKB) in Switzerland, along with a Diploma Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H). Dr. King is a Doctorate (PhD) in Philosophy in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London and a Master in International Health Management (MIM) from Thunderbird School of Global Management; Master in Public Health (MPH) in international Health from the University of Texas School of Public Health, USA. She can be reached at aking@arielfoundation.org

r Mohammad Haqmal is an award-winning senior international public health and health system innovation expert. With his 18 years of experience in public health projects in South & Central Asia, he is well versed with the challenges and gaps in health care domain, especially during emergency and pandemic . Currently, he is a lecture at the University of City Dr. M N Haqmal

London, UK responsible for projects in primary healthcare, including communicable disease, maternal and child health at regional and national level. Dr Haqmal quali ed as a medical doctor in Afghanistan in 2003 along with MSc in (Global Health and Development) from University College London 2013; Most recently, Dr Haqmal designed various innovation strategies such as, CoVID19 Eliminator, District Hunting Initiative (DHI) in response to COVID19, Provision of Health Services During Emergencies (PHSE), Healthy District Initiative (HDI) and immunization for hard-to-reach population. He can be reached at mohammad.Haqmal@city.ac.uk

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Published by: Ariel Foundation International (AFI)- With Special Consultative ECOSOC

Status with the United Nations

ISBN 978 1 7346475 9 4