
India's Response to Covid-19 Is a Humanitarian Disaster - lilrhody
https://bostonreview.net/global-justice/debraj-ray-s-subramanian-indias-response-covid-19-humanitarian-disaster
======
entha_saava
Indian here. This piece may sound biased, but it is true.

The lockdown was a good step. But poorly enforced. /people think it is against
their prestige if they are home quarantined/. Not much of rationale could be
seen even during the lockdown. People always put emotions above logic and
screw up everything.

People also stepped out of homes unnecessarily because they don't understand
the seriousness of the situation. But it is like every other country, only
that we have much higher population density and disorganised public.

But the darker side is that there are lot of people in India who __Cannot
__afford to stop working and stay at home. And this means lockdown can 't be
completely obeyed at villages, where most of agricultural activity happens.
Village people are harder to keep aware of social distancing as well. (No
offence intended, in fact I am from a village). The agricultural activities
confined to villages wouldn't have been a big issue if people reduced other
methods of contact with cities / other villages. But they don't understand.

Since there is no Govt. support for COVID-19 patients, it costs some multiple
times of a village person's income. That means people won't get tested even if
they have slight idea about the pandemic and suspect they are infected -
because they can't afford treatment even if they get tested.

COVID-19 is currently mostly limited to urban areas. I can't even imagine what
happens if it spreads to villages.

~~~
avemuri
It has already spread to villages. The ridiculously haphazard implementation
of the lockdown led to a widespread migration of people back to their homes -
which are often villages. Lucky for the government, theres no one there to
challenge the official numbers and story.

In the urban centers at least it's now being questioned
[https://scroll.in/article/966898/how-many-people-in-india-
ha...](https://scroll.in/article/966898/how-many-people-in-india-have-had-
covid-19)

------
virjog
For a country with 1 billion people, India is handling the situation better
than most countries from a numbers perspective.

As of today, India has around 1.19 million cases with 28,732 deaths and more
importantly, 753k recoveries.

Comparatively, the US has around 4.04 million cases with 145k deaths and only
1.2 million recoveries.

What is missing from most conversations around COVID is how to strengthen your
immune system to resist the more deadly symptoms of the virus.

The Indian diet, based on Ayurvedic principles, emphasizes the use of spices
and other ingredients that are naturally anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and
anti-bacterial. It is common in many Indian families to treat seasonal
illnesses through home remedies rather than immediately resorting to
medication. Doctors in India are recommending COVID-positive patients to do
the same. These home remedies include eating "soonth goli" (a mix of ginger,
piprimul jaggery, almonds, and ghee), drinking turmeric milk, and various
forms of steam therapy, to name a few.

When almost 75% of COVID patients are recovering, clearly India must be doing
something right.

~~~
econcon
>As of today, India has around 1.19 million cases with 28,732 deaths and more
importantly, 753k recoveries.

Only if you believe the reported number.

India has a bad track record in tracking deaths.

Most deaths go unreported specially in rural areas. Only 20% of the deaths are
reported and it was found that most of the deaths where reason was covid19
were reported as death due to other morbidities like organ transplant,
diabetes etc...

