Relatives carry a COVID-19 patient on oxygen support for admission to a hospital in Muzaffarpur, May 8, 2021. Photo: PT
Patna: Manoj Sinha (57) – resident of Daraili Mathia village in north Bihar’s Siwan district – had gone to Lucknow with his wife to negotiate the wedding of his son about a fortnight ago. His wife suddenly developed fever, cough and chest pain and got admitted to a hospital where she died in two days.
Manoj came to his native village to perform the shradh (death-related ritual) for his departed wife. But on the day of shradh at the village, his octogenarian mother developed fever, cough and breathlessness and she died too.
On the same day, Manoj too developed fever, cough and breathlessness and he too died after two days of his mother’s death. Manoj was the lone son of his parents. Manoj’s son – orphaned now – is alone at his five-room house at Daraili Mathia. Other villagers are wary of visiting him.
Brahma Giri (65) – resident of Mathia tola (sub-village), a part of the Daraili Mathia panchayat –suddenly developed fever, cough and then breathlessness. His family members took him in a charpoy to a quack at Kanhauli, two kilometres away. The quack administered him some injections and asked the relatives to take him to a hospital at Siwan so that he could be administered oxygen. It was well past evening and the relatives took him back to Mathia to make arrangements to take him to Siwan the next day. But Brahma had short breaths most through the nights and breathed his last at about 4 am in the morning.
“There was no way out. We couldn’t have taken him to Siwan during the previous night because we didn’t have conveyance. The next morning, he died,” his younger cousin, Ramesh Giri said. “Few days have passed in the past two months without the village witnessing a death or two”.
Also read: As Second COVID Wave Breaks the Bihar Paradox, What Should the State Do?
Daraili Mathia – a village of five tolas with a population of about 2,000 people – is a remote village, 35 kilometres from the district headquarters of Siwan. It is on Bihar-Uttar Pradesh borders tucked between Darauli and Guthani blocks, the last of the blocks in Bihar. Mehrauna block, a kilometre away from Guthani is in Uttar Pradesh.
“It is hard to find space and firewood at the cremation ghat on the bank of the river Saryu at Darauli where the villagers from the region cremate their departed relatives. Many people can’t afford wood as the prices of which are skyrocketing”, said Ramesh Giri.
Unclaimed bodies in Ganga
Across the two rivers – the Saryu and the Ganga – from Darauli is located Buxar. The Mahadevda Ghat under the Chousa block of Buxar saw a number of bodies floating near the ghat in the river Ganga on Monday, creating a panic in the region.
The ETV-Bharat reported on Tuesday that the number of the bodies had gone up to 100. The Buxar district administration said that the bodies belonged to adjoining villages in Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh.
The ETV Bharat’s local reporter quoting a daily wager, Bihar Sah, son of Dehari of Ballia district, said that the Uttar Pradesh administration had engaged labourers to throw out the bodies into Ganga.
“We are throwing the bodies into Ganga on the orders of the local police station,” Bihar Sah was quoted by the ETV as saying.
Now, a question arises as to why has the chief minister Nitish Kumar not been requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask UP chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, to clarify about the bodies from Ballia villages coming along the course of the river Ganga in Bihar?
Or, why has the Modi government not taken up the issue with the UP government despite the news of the bodies floating in the Ganga near Buxar spreading like a wildfire?
A local from Buxar told The Wire, “Geographically, Ballia and Buxar are in the same region. The villages of Ballia and Buxar have witnessed many deaths in the last two months. The people are struggling to arrange firewood and space to cremate the bodies. They are just abandoning bodies and throwing them in the Ganga.”
Panic grips villages as infection spreads
Senior journalist Kanhaiya Bhelari who himself is infected by the virus and is stationed at his native village, Bhelari in Rohtas district, adjoining Buxar said, “90% of my fellow villagers have been suffering from fever, cough and breathing problems. There is no doubt that the facilities of testing and treatment are limited but the people at large are wary of getting tested for Covid-19. They rely on local quacks. Many of them treat themselves with roasted cloves, hot water; tulsi (basil) leaves kadha and paracetamol tablets prescribed by the local quacks.
Those who have reasonably good immune system survive and those with fragile immune system succumb to the disease. It is hard to create awareness against the pandemic overnight in the absence of proper medical infrastructure and trained health professionals at the village level. Many villagers are not willing to take vaccination too.”
Also read: COVID-19 in Bihar: Horror in Chausa Town As Dead Bodies Wash Up on Banks of Ganga
Jaipal Singh, a relative of a septuagenarian woman Mukhia of Rohinia village in the East Chapmaran district said, “Our village has over 2,500 people. Most of them are suffering from fever, cough and breathing problems. We (Jaipal and his Mukhia relatives) have come to Motihari – headquarters of the East Champaran district – to keep ourselves safe. It’s simply not possible for us to look after hundreds of ailing people at our village.”
Poor health indices
Dr Shakeel, consultant of The Polyclinic – a non-profit health organisation and convener of the Jan Swath Abhiyahn (Public Health Campaign) in Bihar – told The Wire, “There is one doctor to serve 28,000 patients in Bihar against the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of one doctor on per 1,000 patients. Bihar is positioned 20th from below on the ladder of health indices among the 21 major states fixed by the Niti Ayog. Uttar Pradesh stands at 21st.”
“But the Bihar health minister, Mangal Pandey, habitually furnishes wrong data about the doctors-patients’ ratio. He includes Unani medicine practitioners, Ayurvedic practitioners and quacks to claim that there is one doctor per 2,000 patients in Bihar,” Dr Shakeel said.
“The fact remains 50% to 60% posts of general doctors and 72% posts of experts are lying vacant with the government hospitals and medical colleges across the state. It is a pathetic situation needing systematic and planned attention.”
Dr Shakeel who himself was infected with COVID-19 about a year ago attends to 50 to 60 COVID-19 patients, mostly belonging to the poor strata of the society, per day.
Mismatch
According to official figures, Bihar has witnessed 3,429 deaths so far during the second wave of the pandemic. The state, which recorded 10,920 COVID-19 cases till 8 pm Tuesday, May 11, has altogether 1,02,099 active cases of Corona. The official figures show a trend of a slight decline in the enormity of the pandemic in the state in the last three/four days.
“But the actual figure of death might be 10 times or even more than what the official figures say. Moreover, the government had no machinery to test and treat 75% to 80% of the people living in the villages. The situation is alarming at the ground level. The official figures will prove to be a farce if an evidence-based and empirical study is carried out on the ground reality of Bihar,” Dr Shakeel said.
Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author and professor of journalism and mass communications at Invertis University, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.