Dr John Mohan Razu
COVID-19 has unfolded many facets of functioning of institutions in the last eight months. One major factor that it brought to light is that the state and the central governments in India somehow managed to brush the global pandemic aside or tried to push it under the carpet reveals the sorry state of affairs of the public health system and its functioning which we were made to believe as if good and could manage any eventualities in India and the world at large.
Health care systems in the West that have had “great value and appreciation” during pre-COVID-19 era particularly those in the United States and United Kingdom became vulnerable and pathetic. COVID-19 exposed all the countries of the world that lauded and boasted about their public and private health systems. As of now the USA is topping the list of those who died touched more than 2lakhs and infected to some millions and UK is hit by the second surge.
Along with others India’s health system both public and private showed its incapacity and incapability to treat those—the vulnerable who rushed to the hospital. As of now, India has occupied the second position and the curve is surging. COVID-19 has totally devastated everything thereby crushing human resolve and resilience, hopes and aspirations. Strategies of all kinds seem to have been enforced to contain the coronavirus, but failed on all counts.
More COVID-19 prolongs its exit plans more revelations are bound to surface as the Indian public health system is bound to show its deficiencies. One such horrifying revelation is a family alleges rats bit body of man who died of COVID-19 at Indore Hospital, Madhya Pradesh. A decomposed corpse in the mortuary of a state-run hospital in Indore, another shocker emerged in the media both print and visual.
21st of September, 2020, the family of an 87-year-old man who died at Indore’s Unique Hospital, after being infected with COVID-19 received his remains in a white body bag. Hours later, as they were receiving the body, the family was horrified to find parts of the man’s face and legs had seemingly been bitten. The family asserted that rats were allowed to attack the body while it was in storage They were bewildered and taken aback as they saw the corpse.
The initial reaction was “See how rats have bitten the body in just four hours. This is injustice … they should have told us, we have taken the body then only,” Preeti Jain, the deceased daughter-in-law, said. Adding further, “We were shocked to see the body as rats had nibbled at eyes, face, ear and legs of the body. Hospital staff denied taking responsibility for the same,” Prakash Jain, his son, said.
The members of the family were totally shattered as the visuals were horrifying. Over and above, the hospital is located on a busy main road and the body was inside a white body bag on a stretched. The visuals showed disturbing blood stains on the body bag. Having witnessed such thing to the dear one who died and the way the body presented with blood stains and missing parts reiterated one thing clearly that rats attacked the body.
Other visuals show that men who appear to be hospital staff dressed in full body suits seem to be shouting at the family while another video one of the staff members pointing his finger in anger. The deceased identified as Navin Chand Jain, who was admitted was for COVID-19 positive on the 18th September, 2020. As per the orders of the Collector, ADM-level committee has been formed who have started the inquiry. No one knows how long it would take.
The episode clearly shows the state of public health in India. Again, and again the GOI of India and the state governments come out with tall claims and unbearable narratives that India is doing well in curbing the spread of virus and arresting the death toll when compared to huge population. On the contrary Johns Hopkins University provides entirely a different data that do not match with the data that Government of India especially Union Health Ministry provides.
When the political leaders who head important ministries come out with bizarre utterances and narratives concocting all kinds of stories on and off to woo the people; while on the other common citizens witness, read and see such harrowing incidents such as Indore makes many to wonder: what’s happening to our country and where are we moving towards? Leaders should not underplay with the numbers or play with the facts for their politics. Human lives matter.
Those who are responsible have stooped down so low showing scant respect and insensitive to the relatives and who have lost their dear ones. The episode that happened in Indore rips open the worst state of India’s public health system in India. Those in responsible positions keep offering tall claims, but in return come out with pathetic performances. How low one could go when someone’s body parts nibbled by the rats in a mortuary? This is how the government at the Centre as well as the state governments function concerning public health utilities.
Whether alive or dead human bodies ought to be respected. Sanctity of human body when alive or dead ought to be given and thus pay due respect as it deserves. Human life manifests in and though the exteriors and interiors of rhythm in such beautiful, perfect, and precise ways for years. Abandoning the people who come for treatment or making those who visit the hospitals to wait for hours and days or not handling the dead bodies without respect such as the Indore incident manifests the total failure of India’s public and private health system.
Ayn Rand describes “Now take a human body. Why wouldn't you like to see a human body with a curling tail with a crest of ostrich feathers at the end? And with ears shaped like acanthus leaves? It would be ornamental, you know, instead of the stark, bare ugliness we have now. Well, why don't you like the idea? Because it would be useless and pointless. Because the beauty of the human body is that is hasn't a single muscle which doesn't serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man (sic) and the life of a man(sic).” Simone de Beauvoir says “The body is the instrument of our hold on the world.”
COVID-19 has totally devastated the mind and body. COVID-19 has furthered psychosomatic problems. Many young millennials suffer depression and anxiety related problems. If the mind gets into the mode of hopelessness then body obviously gets affected. Ambedkar gets deeper into the roots: “Why does a human body become deceased? The reason is that as long as the human body is not free from suffering, mind cannot be happy. If a man lacks enthusiasm, either his body or mind is in a deceased condition....Now what saps the enthusiasm in man?If there is no enthusiasm, life becomes drudgery - a mere burden to be dragged. Nothing can be achieved if there is no enthusiasm.The main reason for this lack of enthusiasm on the part of a man is that an individual loses the hope of getting an opportunity to elevate himself.Hopelessness leads to lack of enthusiasm. The mind in such cases becomes deceased …”We are in the midst of coronavirus and are expected to keep our body and mind intact.
