Stigma, ostracism, innuendo and ill-treatment are just a few of the societal hurdles that COVID-19 patients are facing in Hyderabad.
As the Telangana government has chosen home-quarantine as a preferred option for discharging hundreds of patients, there are thousands of COVID-positive persons scattered throughout the city.
“As good citizens, we disclosed the COVID status [to our resident welfare association] when one person in our family tested positive. We had to face nasty WhatsApp messages. We were barred from taking our dog out. Even the delivery personnel were stopped for a while,” says R. Natasha who lives in an apartment block in Begumpet.
“Our gate was bolted from outside in the night after the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation staff sanitised the surroundings of our home. The neighbourhood grocery store refused to deliver milk, although he leaves the packets outside the gate,” says another resident in Radhakrishna Nagar in the southern part of Hyderabad.
Even the domestic staff of a well-known politician who tested positive had to face ostracism as the neighbourhood shops barred them from coming into the Nallakunta area.
Horror stories like these have become the norm as resident welfare associations and neighbourhoods are shutting out and shunning COVID-19 positive persons and their families.
While the Telangana State’s medical bulletin presents a rosy picture of a disease that is plateauing, data from Aarogya Setu app shows a different picture. In Nalanda Nagar, the number of COVID-positive persons in 500-metre radius is 23, in 1 km radius 94, in 2 km radius 189, 5 km radius 689 and in 10 km radius 3,760. And 2 km from that location in Hyderguda, the numbers change to 500 metres 38 cases, 1 km 98 cases, 2 km 227 patients, 5 km 793 cases and 10 km 3,507 cases.
The data about patients and where they stay has been kept a secret by the GHMC as homes of COVID-19 persons are being declared as containment zones. The result is inconvenience at every level, including access to bottled drinking water, vegetables, milk and other daily needs. Earlier, when the State followed a containment zone policy, a nodal officer was appointed for each containment zone and officials from all other utilities as well as ASHA workers were involved. Every aspect, from milk supply to electricity, was taken care of. But with this tweak in the policy of containment zones, patients and their families are being left to the mercy of RWAs and neighbourhoods.
