NEW DELHI: Over 2200 have died in the heat wave sweeping India with the count still rising. The poor--labourers, beggars, farmers, homeless---constitute the majority of deaths with heat stroke, dehydration engulfing the largely shelterless population across the country.
The authorities have taken time to wake up to the crisis with the first reports of some action in the form of directing hospitals, swamped with the sick, to be prompt in their response. However, little has been done to identify the districts worst hit, and to provide drinking water and emergency health care on a war footing. The statistics, rising by the day, have failed to impress the governments that remain largely indifferent to the plight of the poor who are not being to survive the heat wave, as the mercury stays at 45 degrees C plus.
The world media has been focusing on the heat wave deaths in India with regular, detailed reports. Unlike the mainstream Indian media that has just about touched on the deaths, without full coverage of the shortage of water and the abysmal medical facilities available to the poor in this time of crisis, the international newspapers have been detailing the reasons with interviews of those worst affected.
Cooling himself on the railway tracks
Apart from banal directives such as ‘do not venture out’, ‘wear lose clothing’ the affected state governments have little to offer the vulnerable sections of the population. The poorest of the poor are left to fend for themselves, with no effort to set up shelters with drinking water for the labourers and the homeless who are dying of dehydration. Medical camps have not been provided to deal with those who have been directly hit by the heat, with the poor of India left to fend for themselves with meagre resources and in many cases, with no access to potable drinking water.
Poor farmers are also facing the brunt of the heat, with the statistics compiled so far placing them in the vulnerable groups as well. The centre has not responded to the large number of deaths, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge to serve the farmers and the poor while inaugurating Doordarshan’s (state owned television) Kisan (farmers) Channel. This has been done to counter the growing perception that the government is anti-farmer.
Trying to beat the heat
Construction labourers who are driven to work in the burning heat by unscrupulous contractors, form a bulk of those dead. Those living without shelter in an India obsessed with growth and not reality on the ground, have fallen prey to the heat with the direct sun, the absence of shelter, water and food making them particularly vulnerable.
Poverty figures of India have not lifted despite the promises made by governments when they come to power, be it at the centre or the states. Over 60 percent of the population---the figures vary according to the economists but this remains the average agreed upon---is without three meals a day, living on sub-standard nutrition that does not give them even the minimum calories required.
Doctors spoken to by The Citizen point out that it is important to be sheltered from the heat; to have adequate drinking water; to be healthy with sufficient food available to fortify the body against the heat wave. The 1100 killed so far, with the count still rising, belong to the India that is not included in the plan of growth and development, and hence lacks the basic minimum to protect itself from the soaring temperatures.
Red Box warnings have been issued to Odisha, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh which basically warns of higher heat by the heat as they live in conditions that defy belief. The construction workers usually live near the sites where they are working, if so allowed, by putting up pieces of cloth as a shelter that does not protect them from either the sun or the rain; the beggars and the homeless sleep on pavements, exposed to the weather in all its extremes; they eat infrequently and do not have access to a regular supply of water.
Is that shelter enough for a poor farmer walking the parched fields in Odisha?
There has not been a word about their plight by the central government celebrating its first year in power, or by the national opposition criticising the government on its one year in power. The state governments are toting up the statistics without even a plan to help mitigate the suffering of the poor, and provide them with the minimum facilities to help them escape the heat and probable death.