New Delhi, India – Outside the gates of Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre (SPCCC), a makeshift hospital built by the Delhi government, a 55-year-old woman’s body is lying on the sidewalk.
Her daughter, 32, and teenage grandson sit next to the body, crying, as they hold her lifeless hands. An hour later, an ambulance arrives. Three men come out it and start wearing their personal protective equipment (PPE) gear.
“This is something that happens everyday for the past few weeks and we are used to seeing death at this scale now,” ambulance driver Dipu, who goes by his first name, told Al Jazeera.
Express News Service
Pawan Kumar stands with a bunch of colleagues who work as sevadaar, also called dom, at a crematorium in the national capital. “Humare pas mask nahi hai. Gloves, sanitiser nahi hai. Joote nahi hain or hume koi darr bhi nahi hai (Neither we been provided with mask, gloves, shoes or sanitiser nor we have any fear). I don’t have any problem with the civic authority or government. The only thing that breaks our heart is that despite working day and night, directly dealing with the bodies of corona victims and Covid-positive relatives and risking our lives, we are not considered corona warriors or frontline workers.”
A child in a Covid-infected family watches his grandparents die and decay before him while his father pleads in vain with neighbours and strangers for help. Welcome to Delhi. Welcome to Hell