Muz’nagar villagers compiling death registers

They aim to show mismatch with official figures and share the results with the authorities

MEERUT : People in select villages of Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh are in the process of compiling “death registers” to include the names of all those who died after suffering from fever, breathlessness and other Covid-19-like symptoms, those familiar with the matter said.

The exercise was meant to highlight the alleged mismatch in mortality figures on the ground and the health authorities’ data, they explained. Gradually, the initiative would be extended to other districts of the region, they added.

On the other hand, officials attributed the difference in numbers to a variety of reasons such as inclusion of data uploaded by Covid hospitals and panic among villagers who were attributing every mortality to Covid-19. They said deaths from Covid-19 were less than 2%.

Muzaffarnagar district has reported 232 deaths from Covid-19 since March last year and the district has 3852 active cases at present, according to official data.

The list of deaths was being prepared only in those villages where the number of mortalities seemed more than normal, said Dharmendra Malik, state spokesperson for the Bhartiya

Kisan Union, which has a strong network in western UP and will assist villagers in preparing these registers.

These registers would be shared with officials to ascertain the reality behind these deaths as government documents were showing very few mortalities in the villages, he said.

Initially, union leaders and activists would help residents of select villages of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli in preparing the lists, he said. The exercise started from Muzaffarnagar where BKU has its headquarters in Sisauli, he added. Details of the deceased would be included in the “registers”.

Muzaffarnagar district has 704 villages spread over nine development blocks. BKU, which has its members in every almost village, posted a message on social media on May 12 saying it was important to bring forth such lists in order to get proper treatment for others in villages during the pandemic. Malik has so far shared registers of the Pachenda Kalan and Kharad villages in Muzaffarnagar. The register for Pachenda Kalan contains details of 25 deaths in the past one month. There were seven deaths in Kharad, according to the BKU leader.

“Soon, registers from more villages would be made available. Union members are working on it,” said Malik.

Raju Ahlawat, BKU’s divisional general secretary, claimed that at least 18 people had died in his native village Bhainsi in Muzaffarnagar. He said it all started two days after the second phase of the panchayat election concluded on April 19. Many of them had Covid-like symptoms (fever and cough), he added. Ahlawat accused officials of hiding the real data about people’s death and suffering in villages.

“If we raise the issue of underreporting, they ( officials) blame us for creating undue panic,” said Ahlawat who is also assisting in preparing the “death registers”. BKU’s Shamli district president Kapil Khatiyan claimed there were 23 deaths due to suspected Covid-19 in his village Pindora in the same district.

“People are still largely banking on village quacks for treatment,” he said.

Shamli was carved out of Muzaffarnagar and made a new district in September 2011.

He accused officials of hiding the actual number of deaths in the villages and complained about less tests being done.

Shamli has 322 villages in five blocks and he was hopeful of preparing registers in at least 50 villages, Khatiyan said.

Shamli district has reported 36 deaths since March 2020 and has 1481 active cases at present, according to official data.

Bahadur Singh, the pradhan (head) of Loomb village in Baghpat district of western Uttar Pradesh, recently posted a list of 37 people who passed away in the village in the past one month or so. After he took the step, a team of doctors and health workers arrived at the village.

Singh said samples of 301 people were taken.

All were negative according to the test reports received three days later, he said.

Bahadur Singh said there should have been “proper testing” and check-up in the village earlier. Most of the people who died were old, but even then their deaths should have been looked into because an abnormal number of mortalities created doubts during the pandemic, he added. BKU’s Baghpat district president Pawan Gurjar said people were angry about the alleged underreporting of deaths in villages.

He said people had suffered a lot in the past one month because of less tests, shortage of oxygen and medicines.

Gurjar said 15 people recently tested positive in his village Niwali in Baghpat.

Sixteen people reportedly died in Bali village, 42 in Gaadi village, 15 in Lanchaura and over 70 in Rataul gram panchayat, all in Baghpat district, he added. The health department’s records, however, said so far 128 people had died of Covid in Baghpat district since March last year and there were 1917 active cases.

Gurjar said Baghpat district had over 300 villages in six blocks and he would ask BKU members in the villages to collect details of deaths in the past one month or so and compile them in registers.

In Bijnor, which has 2519 villages, BKU district president Chaudhary Kuldeep Singh said a meeting of union leaders and members would be convened on May 21 to discuss the alleged underreporting of deaths.

“We would advise members to prepare lists of deaths that have taken place in their respective villages during the second wave of the pandemic,” said Kuldeep Singh

The Allahabad high court recently took the example of Bijnor district as a test case to assess the overall health care system in smaller cities and rural areas of the state. After going through Covid testing data related to Bijnor, the bench expressed its dissatisfaction over the number of tests conducted in Bijnor between March 31, 2021 and May 12 , 2021.

The bench said on May 17 that in a population of 32 lakh, if only 1200 persons are tested per day, then the situation is not happy.

BKU’s youth wing state president Digamber Singh, who belongs to Bijnor, said, “We need to expose shortcomings of the system to protect the lives of people in villages and we will do it.” On the alleged difference in number of deaths, chief medical officer (Muzaffarnagar) Mahaveer Singh Faujdar explained that the department reported those deaths as Covid mortalities which designated Covid hospitals uploaded in the portal. He further said deaths due to Covid-19 were less than 2% but in most of the cases it had been seen that people, especially in villages, linked even “normal” deaths to Covid-19 due to panic during the pandemic.

Deputy chief medical officer (Baghpat) Dr Yashbeer Singh said 200 Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) had been formed for 245 villages of the district and they were working with teams of Ashas (accredited social health activists), anganwadi workers stationed in villages under the supervision of auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs). He claimed that there was no village in the district where tests were not carried out after receiving a status report from Asha and anganwadi workers.

He said that so far 1200 tests were conducted at Loomb village in Baghpat. Twenty-one people tested positive there and later recovered, he said, adding that the village was now free from Covid-19.

About the alleged difference in the number of deaths in villages and those mentioned in government records, Dr Yashbeeer Singh said, “An abnormal number of deaths in villages can’t be described as Covid deaths.”

On the other hand, villagers said, “Surveillance teams did a survey in the villages from May 5 onwards to collect details of people with Covid-like symptoms.”

“But what about those who passed away earlier without being tested?” they asked.

Some villagers used this argument to accuse officials of hiding deaths in villages.

If we raise the issue of underreporting, they (officials) blame us for creating undue panic RAJU AHLAWAT, BKU’s divisional general secretary