India: Protect Rights, Dignity Amid Covid-19 Crisis
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Ensure Equitable Health Care; Uphold Free Speech; Reduce Prison Population
(New York) – India’s government needs to urgently address healthcare shortages amid the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 crisis and ensure that vulnerable communities have equitable access to treatment, Human Rights Watch said today. Donors and diaspora groups that are rushing assistance to India should encourage the government to end curbs on free speech and to respect human rights in its pandemic response.
Following widespread criticism of its handling of the pandemic, with shortages in oxygen supplies and hospital care costing lives, the Indian government ordered nearly 100 social media posts to be taken down, saying they spread fake information. Most of the content targeted, however, had angrily criticized the government’s response to the crisis. Uttar Pradesh state’s chief minister has denied oxygen shortages and warned that charges would be brought under the draconian National Security Act against anyone, including healthcare workers, spreading “rumors” on social media to “spoil the atmosphere.”