'A 22-year-old woman who filed a police complaint alleging gangrape in Bihar’s Araria district has been arrested on charges of disrupting court proceedings on July 10. She had demanded the presence of social workers during the recording of her statement before the district judge, said members of the Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, a non-profit organisation that helped her through the process of filing a first information report with the Araria police. Two social workers who had accompanied her to the court – Kalyani Badola and Tanmay Nivedita – have also been arrested.
'IN THE arms of a young girl, three years old, is another child that isn’t yet one. She struggles with his weight, slight as he is, trying to feed him out of a bottle. It is a burden that is heavy to bear. But the fight against hunger for children of the Musahari tola in Badbilla village of Bhagalpur has been a daily challenge. In this lockdown, that burden has only become heavier. A microcosm of Bihar, Bhagalpur is the focus of a month-long series by The Indian Express to understand the pandemic’s effects in smalltown India.
'Guddu Mandal, 30, who made a living as a ragpicker and labourer, died allegedly in his sleep in Bhagalpur city on Friday — the night after an epilepsy fit and after many days without a proper meal in the lockdown that had left him without work. He was buried under the floor of his home, his family said, because they did not have any money to cremate him. Guddu’s younger brothers Om Prakash and Ajay who lived nearby used to drive cycle-carts and, like him, had been without an income for the past two months...'
'An 11-year-old boy, Tabaarak, pedalled a tricycle cart for nine consecutive days to transport his parents from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi to their village in Bihar’s Araria, a distance of around 600 kilometres, amidst the lockdown. A video of the same went viral on Twitter with users taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) catchphrase...'
'Testing of migrant workers returning to Bihar is underlining the twin challenge that public health experts have warned about — the virus is being carried in and many of the carriers are asymptomatic. Until May 18, Bihar tested a total of 8,337 samples of migrant workers and about 8% were found to be Covid-positive — double the national average positivity rate which is about 4%. Of the 835 samples taken from migrant workers who returned from Delhi, as many as 218 were Covid positive. This works out to a positivity rate of over 26%, while the rate in the national capital is about 7%...'
'Six migrant workers were killed and five were seriously injured on Wednesday night when a speeding State transport bus ran over them on the Delhi-Sharanpur highway near Muzaffarnagar, police said. The workers were walking from Punjab to their homes in different districts of Bihar...'
'More than 10,000 Muslim migrant workers from Bihar and West Bengal residing at Painters’ Colony in Jaipur’s Nahri ka Naka area, who have only been given dry ration packets since the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25, took to the streets on Sunday asking to be sent back home. They claimed that only around 400 packets, each containing a total of seven kilograms of flour, pulses, rice and salt, was distributed among 10,000 people last month. This, too, only came after volunteers of the CPI(ML), CPM and CPI in the area intervened.
'...Despite her husband’s non-cooperation, every day, Seema wears her light pink sari (ASHA’s formal attire) and visits around 25 households, a target which she has set for herself. “I am supposed to do this. Even if I am scared, I cannot step back,” she says. “More than myself, I am afraid of transmitting the infection to my children and my mother-in-law,” she added. ASHAs have been assigned a number of tasks during the ongoing pandemic. “On a normal day, in addition to distributing posters, we are supposed to trace the contacts of COVID-19 patients.
'In a horrifying incident, a migrant woman was sexually abused in a Gaya hospital where she was kept in an isolation ward. Three days later, she died due to excessive bleeding. The matter came to light on Tuesday when her mother-in-law informed the authorities concerned about the shocking incident...'
'‘Stay home and stay safe’, the global slogan to contain the spread of coronavirus doesn’t sound too convincing to Mohammed Hakim and his associates who, unlike many other migrants, were forced to stay back and are battling hunger each day. Their names are listed on ration cards but the cards, along with their families, are at home in Bihar. Living five to six persons in one windowless room at shanties behind the Jal Vihar bus terminal in the shadow of the posh Lajpat Nagar 1 colony in Delhi, they are now struggling to get one meal a day...'
