'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.
'...Initially isolated from the epidemic that has swamped the capital New Delhi and financial center Mumbai, rural areas were exposed when millions of migrant workers who lost their jobs in the cities when the government implemented a strict nationwide lockdown on March 25 went home. The states of Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh received the most number of returning laborers — now they are also witnessing the sharpest rise in new cases in the two weeks to June 8, according to internal government estimates seen by Bloomberg.
'Fifty-seven minor girls have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at a state-run children’s shelter home in Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, with five of them found to be pregnant and one HIV positive. Since the information was confirmed, the UP administration has gone into a frenzy, even as officials said the pregnancies began before the lockdown. The shelter home has been sealed, and its staff quarantined.
'Even as CM Rupani promotes Rajkot-based private company’s ‘breathing apparatus’, Gujarat’s largest Covid-19 hospital urgently seeks full-fledged ventilators from Centre. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has not left his citadel in Gandhinagar and visited Ahmedabad, the worst-hit corona-affected city in the State. But Rupani did so on April 4 when he inaugurated Gujarat-made ventilators at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.
'Dr Shaukat Ali, a 45-year-old doctor posted in the 108 ambulance service at Malad railway station died of COVID-19 on Sunday. Despite being a frontline warrior, Ali's family ran from pillar to post to get him hospitalised in either a private or government hospital, to no avail. Ali was working with the 108 ambulance service for the last four years. A few days ago, he got his blood tests done after his health deteriorated. The result stated typhoid fever following which he started getting treatment at home in Malwani...'
'A fistful of rice with sugar or salt is a standard meal for 10-year-old Asha Yadav these days. On better days, her mother adds some potatoes or dal (lentils) to her plate. A resident of eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district--among the most backward and poorest in the state’s agricultural belt--Asha is among the 95.1 million children whom the lockdown has deprived of midday meals at school. On school days, Asha would get at least one wholesome meal--rice, vegetables, milk and fruit--under the Indian government’s Midday Meal Scheme.
' Thanks to an all-familiar power cut in the evening, it’s pitch dark in Jhandupurva village. A few torch lights from smart phones pierce through the darkness and illuminate the shape of an eight-year-old boy. Thin, frail, head tilted a little to the side, he can barely speak when asked his name. Sandip is so weak that he stutters and pauses between words. The boy has already finished dinner, his mother Vidya said. Boiled rice with milk: about half a litre of milk for the six-member family, including four children. A rice gruel with more water than milk, and salt added to taste.
'...He was referred to Cooper Hospital, a designated Covid-19 hospital in the city. “After standing in a line for two hours to take a slip to see a doctor, I was informed that the line for the fever clinic is different. By that time, my brother had already started having trouble breathing. So, I rushed him to a private nursing home,” said his brother. The nursing home refused to admit him without a swab test. So, the doctor at the nursing home prescribed a Covid test and he was taken to Hinduja Hospital for a test...'
'On May 8, Mamta, who had boarded a Shramik Special train at Gujarat's Jamnagar went into labour and by the time she got off at her destination in Bihar's Chappra, she had a baby in her arms. A team of doctors along with railway staff supervised Mamta as she delivered a healthy baby girl after her compartment was converted into a makeshift labour room, according to railway official...'
'Mohammad Ayub (name changed), a 46-year-old resident of Raopura in Vadodara, Gujarat, has been undergoing dialysis three times a week for the past two years. Once a mechanic, he used to earn his living by repairing air conditioners and refrigerators. Ayub has now been confined to his home after kidney failure close to two years ago. A month ago, Tricolour Hospital, where Ayub had been undergoing treatment for the past two years, refused to treat him further. “The hospital authorities told me that I should get tested (for COVID-19) as the area I reside in was declared a red zone.
