India and Covid-19: The Harsh Reality

~ beetleypete

Thanks to Australian blogger, Lloyd Marken, I have been following his reports about the pandemic all around the world.
https://backtothedrawingboardproductions.com/2021/06/26/covid-19-diary-one-in-three/

His latest post features a You Tube video clip from the news programme, ‘India Today’. This 4-minute clip shows the devastating effect of Covid-19 deaths in that country. Poverty is so severe that many cannot afford the wood to use to cremate the bodies of their loved ones. As a result, many corpses are simpy floated into the River Ganges instead.

On the sandy banks of the same river, thousands are being buried in shallow graves in the sand, covered by prices of cloth. Unknown, and unmarked, these graves are increasing daily, and when the river floods after expected heavy rains, most of the bodies will simply be washed away into the river.

This is not the sort of thing we see on nightly news bulletins in the west. But it is exactly what we should be seeing, when we still have so many people convinced that C-19 is a conspiracy, and are refusing to get innoculations. This is the reality of life in a poverty-stricken country, facing an explosion in numbers of deaths from the virus.

61 thoughts on “India and Covid-19: The Harsh Reality”

  2. Being a citizen of the poverty-stricken country I am accustomed of the situation. Although I agree with you on everything, I do not like depiction of my country as poverty-stricken. Yes, being a so called “developing country” and having an expanding population, India lacks resources. And covid has just made the situation worse. The already saturated job market has further shrank in size. Thousands of poeple have lost their job, and almost 100 percent of the working population of India are afraid of loosing their livelihood any day. Academic year has been messed up and practical field education has been halted. Yet, we as the citizens are fighting to overcome such loss. We at wordskraft have various articles depicting impact of covid in our lives. We would love if you would visit our site Wordskraft and let us know your thoughts on the blog.
    #MyWordsKraft

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    1. With so many people earning less than £88 (900 INR) a month, and a large percentage of the population living on the streets in big cities, India does appear to be ‘poverty-stricken’, by western standards. If that description upsets you, I apologise. But the plain truth is that people who die in the west are not buried in the sand on public beaches, or burned in puvlic using any wood available, and we do not have to buy our own oxyegen supply when we are sick. There are many millionaires and billionaires in India, but wealth distribution is even worse than it is in Europe. If you think I am wrong, feel free to correct me, Angshita. Meanwhile, I wish you and your people nothing but good fortune, and this post was intended to highlight the need for foreign aid to help your country through this.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  4. I live in Delhi. This is a bitter reality of life in the Covid pandemic and the helplessness of poor people. It shows us failed administration in some states of India. Because there is a difference between the words and deeds of the government.

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  9. Because of the blogging community I have become painfully aware of this disease, its worldwide consequences, and the death toll it concentrates on “the least of these.” Whether it is Brazil, India, the Philippines or the United States, those in power seem callous about the death of others.

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      1. I am asking about the UNO, and their possibilities for help. Like for the WHO the whole world hs spent hundred billions of money, but nothing had helped to organize prevention. All states have mapped all the important infrastructures such as health etc. again in the military area. Where are these things? Thanks for the information, Pete! xx Michael

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    1. Per head of the population, the death rate in India is actually lower than in Britain. However, those suffering are usually left to cope alone, with little help or compassion from the government there.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  16. It is important to share this video so that we can see the real situation, unfiltered by political and cultural interests. It is shameful, but that is easy for us to say that, sitting in our comfortable existence. These people did what they can, perhaps the Government doesn’t care, or does its best under the circumstances. Such a population as India, is completely unwieldy in a pandemic. I do hope vaccinations can turn things around. I am astounded at the different approaches to the pandemic world-wide, and those who deny it is an issue. Thanks so much for posting this.

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  17. Thank you Pete for sharing. They are very harrowing images. Just one more example of the scale of the loss that India reached in May. An amount of death and disease I don’t think you can explain away or put into a certain context to justify.

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    1. Yes, given the population size, they have actually been relatively ‘lucky’ with numbers of deaths. But their government has shown shocking disregard for those suffering, and the bereaved.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. I think it’s appalling that the Indian government gives no help to those bereaved people, Peggy. There is a lot of wealth in the country, it is just never distributed fairly.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  19. Pete, the footage is very interesting and although I’ve never visited India, tales of bodies and body parts floating down the Gangees have been told to me by many people that have, for the last thirty or so years.

    To expect people living on less than $2 per day to afford enough wood to burn an entire human body is a probably too much and clearly financially out of reach.

    As most people in the West never see a dead body in a public place, let alone floating down the Thames or other mighty river, it could come as a shock.

    The present Covid data (link below) shows a far more positive picture.

    Both India and the U.K. have a survival rate of 99% or greater.

    India has recorded 30 million plus cases with 29 million plus recovered, with ‘only’ 395,777 deaths.

    The U.K. has recorded 4, 717, 811 cases with 4,314,125 recovered, 275,597 presently sick and 128,089 dead.

    Considering the population of both countries; India almost 1.4 billion to the UK’s 70 million we have probably done far worse per capita.

    Having said that, in the U.K. Covid is still only the 24th biggest killer (even with the cynical manipulation of death figures such as the ‘any death within 28 days of a positive death’ and the exclusion of the Coroner who may beg to differ with the original record of death)

    So Covid can’t even get into the top 20, let alone the top 10.

    Yet we’ve locked down a nation of healthy people, deprived them of fresh air, exercise and sunlight. We’ve muzzled and traumatised our children, and now we are injecting millions of people with a rushed, trial ‘vaccine’ for a virus that
    99.4% of us will survive.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/india/

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    2. Thanks for your extra information, Keith. I appreciate that this has happened in India in the past, my dad told me about it happening during the war years when he was there. It is exceptional this year though, even though the comparable death rate is still lower in India than in the UK, per head of the populations.
      Cheers mate, Pete.

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    1. I think your government carries a lot of blame. Such poverty should never be tolerated in a country with so many billionaires and millionaires. It is shocking indeed.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  23. Hi Pete, South Africa is well on the way to this scale of catastrophe too. Our Covid numbers are totally unstated and many believe they pretty much only comprise the private healthcare services. I am hearing of colleagues and their families being hospitalised and dying on a daily basis. Our poor areas are no different to those of India and a lot of our people would not even have the means to get to a hospital, if there was space for them which there isn’t.

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