Displaying items by tag: India

After a year of COVID, it has almost become possible to be desensitised to the human reality behind the appalling statistics – infection rates, death rates, hospitalisations are repeated regularly by governments and news sources, however all these bring with them tales of human pain and anguish. This is none more so than the current situation in India.  Even on the surface things look desperate; on 12^th May according to official statistics there were over 360,000 new cases and 4120 new deaths.  However many fear the reality is far worse than this with Times of India reporting that death figures are likely 3 times higher than those being reported.  

In horrific scenes, at least 90 more bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims have washed up in rivers in India, as the virus continues to spread into poor rural areas. More than 70 corpses were discovered floating in the Ganges River in the Buxar district of the state of Bihar and dozens more bodies were found upstream in the Ghazipur and Ballia districts in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh.  See Guardian article.

Many believe the bodies had been dumped due to the rising cost of cremating bodies, with crematoriums overrun and firewood for pyres now expensive and in short supply.

Images of ambulance drivers throwing bodies over a bridge on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar into the river emerged on social media. The discovery of the suspected coronavirus fatalities was a cause of concern for local villagers who use the river as a source of water for drinking and washing. The Ganges is also the most sacred river to Hindus and is worshipped as the goddess Ganga. 

The former chief of the village of Mubarakpur in the district said the dumping of bodies had been happening “for the last week”.  Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have blamed each other for the dumping of the corpses. “The bodies have floated into Bihar from Uttar Pradesh,” said the Bihar minister Sanjay Kumar Jha, adding that a net had been placed in the Ganges along the state border to prevent any more bodies floating downstream. Uttar Pradesh authorities have denied all responsibility.

The health system remains overwhelmed.  According to the Financial Times, St Stephen’s Hospital in New Delhi was close to breaking point last week as it was inundated by victims of India’s coronavirus crisis. As its beds filled with patients in acute respiratory distress, the hospital’s oxygen supplies ran perilously low. At one point, its giant oxygen tank had just four to six hours of piped oxygen left for 300 seriously ill patients. Calamity was only averted after frantic calls to the hospital’s supplier and desperate public appeals. But days later, the piped oxygen ran out and St Stephen’s had to rely for several hours on oxygen cylinders.

“There’s no oxygen,” said Mathew Varghese, one of the hospital’s senior doctors. “The system is broken down and we’re losing patients. We don’t know what to do. We’re used to saving lives and we’re watching people die.”

The crisis at St Stephen’s reflected how India’s brutal second wave has overwhelmed health infrastructure and pushed the complex medical oxygen supply chain beyond its limits. India is reporting 300,000 infections and almost 3,000 deaths every day. Experts estimate the real figures are probably far higher.

As patient numbers surged, families across India have engaged in desperate hunts for oxygen cylinders or hospital beds for ailing loved ones. More than 20 patients died last week after oxygen supplies ran out at another New Delhi hospital. Experts said the shortages were largely down to logistical challenges and bureaucratic mismanagement, with supplies in some parts of the country not reaching areas that are more in need.

For a few personal testimonies: of the challenges facing individuals living in India, please see this account by H Kam Suanthang, Elder, EBC Church, New Delhi and a Covid-19 India Prayer Briefing from Rev George Herman here.

Let’s Pray:

At times such as these we remember the words of 1 Corinthians 12: 26-27: If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

We therefore offer our prayers for and stand with our brothers and sisters who are living amidst this uncertainty.  We pray for the families of the patients are also going through horrific experiences trying everything to get the medical support for their loved ones where there just isn’t enough infrastructure to handle the scale of the outbreak.

Pray for strength, wisdom and resilience for the medical staff, many of whom are working long hours under great pressure, with insufficient medicine and oxygen.

Pray for more international intervention to provide more of the much-needed equipment and resources.

How to Give:

Many of us are giving already through our already established routes.  Here are three options that our readers may wish to consider:

Chennai, South East India - Onassis Jeevaraj is IPC’s Director for the region and is co-ordinating support for numerous patients and bereaved families in the area.  It is relatively small-scale, but Onassis and the team are overwhelmed with the calls for financial assistance both for medical treatment and social need as a result of bereavement.  To support this work, please be in touch with Onassis at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and consider the prayer points he shares with us here.

New Delhi Pop-Up Hospital - The Christian Mount Carmel School in New Delhi has been converted into a 100-bed Covid care centre to help with the crisis. Located in Dwarka Sector 22, it is set to function as a covid care centre with 100 oxygen beds for patients requiring oxygen support. To donate via Delhi House Society, please email them directly for details: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

GODTV India Appeal - Our friends at GOD TV are co-ordinating a campaign to pray for and raise money to provide practical support for those in India.  They highlight that plight of the Indian people - dying alone in their homes, some on the streets, some in their cars. It seems like there’s no dignity for life anymore. People are not valued. One person tweeted ‘death has reached every family now’ in reference to a village in the north of India. Many families have lost more than 1 person and with not enough space to bury the dead, those grieving are not able to say a proper goodbye.  You can support their campaign here: https://www.god.tv/

The entire Indian delegation in the UK for G7 talks must self-isolate after two Covid cases were detected. India's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar pulled out of face-to-face talks, saying he was aware of exposure to possible Covid positive cases. India is not in the G7 group of nations, but delegates from the country had been invited as guests. Jaishankar met home secretary Priti Patel in person on 4 May, but will now meet delegates virtually. The G7 consists of seven advanced economies - UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA. Their official summit will be next month, but ministers from India, Australia, South Korea and South Africa have been invited as guests as the UK tries to deepen ties with other regions. India is currently on the UK's red list, meaning travel from there is banned, but some people are exempt, including representatives of a foreign country.

Hospitals rely on daily oxygen deliveries, but they are constantly sending desperate messages for extra supplies. A doctor described the situation: ‘Once you've emptied your main tank, there is nothing to fall back on’. Delhi is running out of cremation space for Covid dead. Pyres burn in families’ gardens. One doctor says hospital patients dying without oxygen prevents him sleeping: ‘I should be concentrating on treating my patients, not running around to get oxygen.’ Many hospitals face the same ordeal. Federal officials reported ‘no shortage of oxygen’, and say the challenge has come from transportation. People are paying a price for political wrangling between the state and federal governments. The price is their life. In November a parliamentary standing committee on health warned of inadequate oxygen supplies and ‘grossly inadequate’ government hospital beds. On 5 May the Supreme Court decided against immediately punishing Indian officials for failing to end an erratic supply. However, significant amounts of oxygen and ventilators are now reaching India from Europe and the USA.

Harrowing scenes from India have shocked the world, as it struggles with soaring Covid cases. But the outbreak isn't just India’s crisis - it's a crisis for everyone. ‘Viruses don’t respect borders, nationalities, age, sex or religion; what’s playing out now unfortunately has been played out in other countries’, said the World Health Organisation's chief scientist. We can pray for travel restrictions, multiple tests and quarantine to prevent infections leaking out and for enough vaccines to be available across the nation. Pray for misinformation and mistrust to be replaced by trust and positive take up of Immunisation. Dr Jeff Barrett, director of the Covid-19 Genomics Initiative, said, ‘The higher the number of cases a country has, the more likely new variants will emerge. Every single infection gives the virus a chance to evolve.’ A major concern is that mutations could arise, rendering vaccines ineffective. Pray for God to give medics stamina and hope as they double down on hospital care and vaccination.

Kumbh Mela began this month. Hundreds of thousands of ash-smeared devout Hindus jostled to dip into the Ganges hoping to wash away their sins, while India reported a record surge in coronavirus infections. Huge crowds entered the river on special bathing days in the month-long festival. Health authorities had to pull back a Covid testing crew to avoid a stampede-like situation. 650,000 devotees bathed in the river on bathing day; many failed to observe social distancing. Infections in the city are over 500 daily since Kumbh Mela. It was just 25 to 30 last month. Hotels are isolation shelters for those infected. The government refused to call off the festival, fearing backlashes from religious leaders in the Hindu-majority country. New Covid cases hit a record 184,372 in 24 hours, more than double the figure at the start of the month. The festival has become a super-spreader.

The NHS said anyone who currently qualifies for their Covid-19 jab (aged over 50 or in at-risk categories) should book their first dose of Covid-19 jabs before 29th March when slots are set to dry up. Officials expect a slowdown in vaccine supplies in April and medics will be focusing on providing second doses. Ministers say the plan to offer a first dose to all adults by July is on track. However NHS England said no first appointments should be booked next month for people under the age of 50 unless they fall into a higher priority group (those who are clinically vulnerable). The reduction in the UK's Covid vaccine supply is partly due to delays in deliveries from India of five million Oxford-AstraZeneca doses. Indian foreign ministry sources said they have placed a temporary hold on all exports of vaccines amid a rising number of domestic cases.

Indian farmers have been protesting against farm acts passed by the parliament last September. Their unions have demanded the laws be repealed, and will accept nothing less. The new acts, which exclude guarantees giving farmers a fair price for their produce, are described as ‘anti-farmer laws’ by the unions and opposition politicians. Since September the protests have become more violent. On 26 November a nationwide general strike by 250 million people took place in support of the farmer unions,and on 30 November 300,000 farmers converged in various places from the Punjab to Delhi. On 26 January tens of thousands violently fought the police, overturned vehicles, and hoisted religious flags from the ramparts of Delhi’s Red Fort. See

On 8 January Karnataka state police banned a community of fifty Christians from having worship services indefinitely. They claimed that none of them were Christian by birth and must have been coercively or fraudulently converted to Christianity. They were also accused of collecting government benefits as both Christians and Hindus. Hindu radicals use the state police to clamp down on Christian activities. They have tried social boycotts and physical beatings. However, local Christians remain faithful in the midst of continued harassment.’ One of the biggest threats to Hindu nationalist ideology is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which frees Hindus from the bondage of trying to appease or earn the favour of millions of false gods. If the gospel continues to spread, India cannot become the land of the Hindus. Hindus believe Christians must be treated as enemies. However the constitution states that citizens have the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate the religion of their choice. See also

Beijing and New Delhi have long been at loggerheads over a disputed border in the Himalayan mountains (see ) This led to massive skirmishes earlier this year. The two Asian powers are battling it out over water. China will build a hydroelectric project in one of the largest rivers in the world, which Indians call the Brahmaputra River. After Beijing announced its biggest hydropower project in history, New Delhi said that its aggressive plans could have major implications for India's food and water security, and would give China power to use waterways as a ‘weapon.’ Indian officials are now considering a rival water project in the same waters, from Arunachal Pradesh to Bangladesh. Analysts say that things could quickly spiral out of control because the two powers have not honoured a water-sharing agreement, which usually governs plans and discussions surrounding new water projects.

India has made ’impressive gains’ in its fight against malaria. The number of cases and deaths caused by the mosquito-borne disease has seen a marked drop, according to the WHO. From nearly 20 million cases in 2000, there were just 5.6 million in 2019. In the past two years India has reduced cases by 18% and deaths by 20%. Malaria is now limited to some hilly parts of India, with most of the districts able to reduce it to almost nil. While nearly a billion Indians live in malaria-endemic areas, 80% of cases are reported by just 20% of the population living in the forest-fringe, tribal, and foothills hard-to-reach areas of the country. The people in these places have low awareness of disease prevention and access to health care. India’s prime minister has pledged to eradicate malaria by 2030.