Life in India's COVID Crisis
For years, statistics have been used to quantify reality and bring in a holistic picture of a situation. They have been used to help the human mind formulate and grasp a better understanding of the world. My entire life, I have always been able to wrap my head around statistics, but I find myself unable to now, as my mind goes numb watching the numbers of India projected into the world.
Countless numbers of people have died due to a virus that they told us we had defeated. Numbers of people do not have access to oxygen, a commodity that I had taken for granted each day of my life. There are new numbers emerging regarding the limited availability of beds in hospitals, and increasing numbers of filled crematoriums. I, with the rest of my country, watch in horror, as every screen in our lives becomes consumed by numbers that we should have never been made to face.
There have been over 20 million total Covid-19 cases, with a record of over 400,000 new cases and 3,980 deaths in a day.
Statistics can only take you so far. To any outside viewer, these numbers are just figures that can be read absentmindedly as they go about the rest of their day. It becomes easy to forget that behind each number coming out of India, there’s a lost family member, a lost friend and a lost life. Behind every statistic, there is immense grieving, suffering and loss.
We use words when statistics fall short, but it’s hard to find the right ones to express the turmoil of emotions Indians are going through. For those here, there is fear. I sit in fear for the wellbeing of my loved ones – knowing that my grandfather has to continue going out for essential work, that my mother sits away from me in a different city, and that my aunt just tested positive for the virus. I fear for my own health and the possibility that I could be a carrier of the virus that infects others.
For my fellow desi Indians who sit across the globe, there is agony. While they live in countries that are now opening back up to a life of going out, embracing and being reunited with loved ones, they sit worried about the lives of their own, from a world far away. As they convey words of reassurance beyond borders, they constantly struggle knowing that they are not at home to help and don’t know when they can be.
There is also anger and helplessness. Anger knowing that this could have been prevented and that we should have been better prepared. Helplessness knowing that even though I write this article about my struggles and experiences, I am still extremely privileged and there are people less fortunate than I am, who have had to experience the horrors of this crisis in ways that we cannot begin to fathom. I sit in a house that I am able to isolate in, with access to sanitation and medicines for my safety – despite seeming like such basic essentials, this in itself is a privilege, unfortunately not one that everyone has.
But amidst all this, there is hope. I feel hopeful when I see how much humanity has been shown in the darkest of days. There are people stepping up to provide food and resources, coordinating oxygen cylinders across the country, and mapping out available hospital beds. Social media has been leveraged to ask for help through which aid is being given. Businesses have provided funds and equipment. The global community continues to rally for India by sharing information and donating. We will never forget that when our leaders failed to step up, people did.
I spend each day conversing with family on how to be safe, checking in on friends and refreshing a website page to see when I can finally get vaccinated. I avoid all contact with the outside world and await the day that this is all behind us. It’s scary to live in India right now, and it's scarier knowing that it’s going to be this way for a while. As the country’s Covid cases cross over 20 million, with each day setting a record for new cases and death toll, I only pray that India’s leaders prepare better to provide for its people in the future, that the rest of the world learns from this nightmare and so that much suffering is prevented from ever happening again.
How you can help from outside India
Here are some vetted resources that you can use to help India. No amount of donation is too small – your small donation can save a life.
@GiveIndia is a trusted donation platform that is raising funds for various Covid-19 related issues in India to provide oxygen to patients, food to families, sanitary napkins to women and more – donate here.
@Hemkunt_Foundation is a humanitarian nonprofit organization that has been working to provide food and O2 beds to help thousands in need – donate here.
@KhalsaAid is a humanitarian organization that has been supporting COVID-19 patients with free oxygen concentrators around India’s capital and is now hoping to expand aid to the rest of the country – donate here.
By Aastha Malik
