PR takes you only up to a point; it is honesty and transparency that count
We have set the world record for the highest number of COVID cases a day, and also the record for the highest number of COVID-related deaths a day. Stories and pictures of what India has been going through the past few months are difficult to digest – long lines of ambulances outside hospitals carrying COVID patients struggling to breathe; lack of medicines, hospital beds and oxygen; patients administered oxygen in cars and ambulances outside hospitals; uncontrollable grief and sorrow and a pervading sense of helplessness and hopelessness; the desperate struggle to survive; scared, unemployed and hungry migrant workers in the cities forced to get back to their homes in the smaller towns and villages… I can go on and on but this has been the broad picture across India in April and May.
Not
to forget, the horrifying images of floating bodies in the Ganges and
half-buried corpses in the region as deaths from the country’s coronavirus
surge broke records. The general perception is that the government has just not
done enough and is more concerned about shoring up its public image. And now
with India’s rural areas reeling under the pandemic, the plight of people
living in the villages can only be imagined.
The
vaccination programme got off to a ‘flying’ start with the media (corporate
media really) doing its bit to show public figures, from the president and
prime minister downwards, getting their vaccine shots. Today, millions in all
age groups in states across the country are waiting for vaccines to arrive –
some for the first dose, and many for the second.
According
to government data, India shipped 66 million doses overseas since January,
enough to vaccinate the population of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata as a report
suggested. In April alone, as India’s COVID crisis went from bad to catastrophic,
nearly 2 million doses left the country (Quartz). Clearly, the government
exported vaccines to boost its global image amidst the pandemic but at what
cost? With people dying and struggling to survive, India’s vaccine diplomacy
lost its sheen long ago.
Now,
after a New York Times report, many are asking whether the figures
trotted out by the government (Central and states) are true and how much is
under-reporting. Just how big is India’s COVID death toll? A week or so ago,
India recorded the largest daily coronavirus death toll (4529) for any country
during the pandemic — a figure that NYT says is most likely an
undercount.
NYT consulted many experts to arrive at several possible
estimates for the true scale of devastation from COVID-19 in India. (As of May
26, India had reported 27.16 million cases and 311388 deaths.) NYT data
shows that the “best-case scenario assumes a true infection count 15 times the
official number of recorded cases, and a death toll roughly double the official
count, at over 600000 deaths”. The worst-case scenario, according to NYT,
taking into account the shortage in oxygen and hospital beds, puts the
estimated infections at over 700 million, and deaths at 4.2 million. The
government, however, has trashed the report, calling it “baseless and
false”... based on “distorted estimates”.
Meanwhile,
many who have been infected with COVID and have recovered are now trying to
meet the challenge of facing up to a certain stigma – manifesting in those
around them. A writer has described how stigma traverses societal, judicial and
healthcare frameworks and why building a social support system is important to
fight the stigma.
A
new analysis released by UNICEF warns that ten million additional child
marriages may occur before the end of the decade because of the pandemic. With
the closure of schools and limited social access, it has become difficult for
the girls to gather support for resisting child marriage. The disadvantages
for poorer children, rural children and girls have been increasing. Many of
them are also being deprived of facilities such as nutrition programmes, free
uniforms and books, not to mention the joy of meeting school friends, studying
and playing together on a daily basis.
Note: Many journalists
in India have lost their lives to COVID in the course of work. Let us spare a
thought for them. It is good to know that a few states have declared
journalists as frontline workers. The Central Government has not. The Tamil Nadu
Government has doubled the solatium (compensation) to the kin of journalists
who die of COVID to Rs 10 lakh. A welcome step.
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