Image Courtesy:telegraphindia.com
As the lockdown in India continues in the hope of curbing the spread of the coronavirus, it has brought along a multiple problems with itself.
1. In Ranchi, Mohammed Imtiyaz, a grocer in his mid-30s lost his newborn daughter in the wee hours of Monday due to what he called overzealous cops enforcing the lockdown. A resident of Hindpiri’s Nizam Nagar area that is a containment zone, Imtiyaz was stopped twice by the police when he tried to take his pregnant wife to a hospital in his car around 1 AM on Monday this week.
Due to this, his wife, Nargis Parveen, had to deliver the baby at home with the help of a few women in the neighbourhood.
“The baby survived only for about half an hour,” Imtiyaz told The Telegraph on Tuesday. A sub-inspector had been suspended over the incident.
Holding back his tears, he told the publication, “The nearest hospital from our home is Seva Sadan at Upper Bazar, barely 600 metres from my home. If the baby was born there, things might have been different, the child might have lived.”
He said, “At a Nizam Nagar gate, the police told me to go back and get permission from some senior police official. I tried to go out from another road near the Marwari College, but was stopped again by another police team who said I had to arrange an ambulance.”
A distraught Imtiyaz added, “Unfortunately, my wife’s labour pains were so severe that there was no time to arrange an ambulance. Couldn’t cops understand that?”
Imtiyaz said that his first wife had died, leaving a daughter behind. “But this was Nargis’ first child. There are around 12 other pregnant women in our area. I humbly request the government to ensure these mothers-to-be don’t share my wife’s fate.”
2. In Bengaluru, a migrant woman labourer who had to deliver her child on a pavement, was given first aid by a dentist who also revived her newborn, Deccan Chronicle reported.
The incident took place on April 14. Shanti, from North India had walked seven kilometers looking for a hospital. She went into labour soon, but a clinic she found was shut, forcing her to deliver on the pavement. As the child didn’t respond, her husband wrapped it in a newspaper, assuming it had died.
However, Ramya Himanish, the dentist, descended like an angel to save the child and the woman. She noticed the woman lying on the pedestrian platform, bleeding and immediately took her to the clinic.
Dr. Ramya told reporters, “When I went there, I saw the woman bleeding. I brought her inside and provided treatment. Then I checked the baby. After the resuscitation process, the child came to life.”
She also summoned an ambulance and sent the woman with the newborn to a government hospital for further better treatment.
3. In Telangana too, a pregnant woman, who was in the last month of her pregnancy, walked 100 km and reached Kusumanchi mandal headquarters to go to her native place in Odisha from Hyderabad, along with her husband. She was rescued by police and revenue officials on Tuesday night and shifted to a hospital in Khammam, reported The Indian Express.
Sunita Sheel (27) and her husband Sridam Sheeel (37), residents of MV-79 village in Malkangiri district, Odisha, had arrived in Hyderabad three months ago to work as labourers. However, the contractors stopped paying them once work was halted due to the lockdown. Because they had no money and no transportation available, they started walking back to their native place.
A lorry driver saw her and offered them a lift after which he dropped the couple at Suryapet. They started walking from Suryapet again, and reached Kusumanchi in Khamman district. The police who was checking vehicles there, stopped them and put them with an organization that has been helping people in need.
4. Reflecting no respite to migrants, the Assam police on Wednesday intercepted a truck at Golakganj in Dhubri ferrying 39 migrant labourers to Bengal from Hojai. The labourers had lost their jobs and money due to the lockdown and were on their way home, reported the Telegraph India.
The labourers were detained and the Bengal police was contacted, but due to the lockdown, the police said it was not possible to take them all back. The Dhubri police then contacted the Hojai police and sent back all the labourers where they were to be quarantined at their respected places with all possible resources.
5. Citizens who are handicapped and depend on help by caregivers are facing a crisis during the lockdown. Most of them haven’t received financial help which was promised by the Centre and most don’t know whom to ask for it. The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), a non-profit, recently shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to look into difficulties faced by lakhs of disabled Indians, reported India Today.
Arman Ali, the non-profit’s executive director said, “The Rs 1,000 announced is for the entire three-month period which translates to Rs 333 per month for an individual. No one in the country has received the amount as yet.”
People who need medical attention find it difficult to get passes for caregivers owing to complicated procedures and lack of transportation. Thalassemia patients too are finding it difficult to get blood for transfusion.
For citizens of rural India, the problems are worse because there is no money coming in due to the lockdown and even two meals are a distant dream.
This is just a miniscule percentage of problems that are actually haunting people amid the lockdown. Nobody knows when and how, and if help will reach those in dire need.
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