Censorship has reached new highs in India during the present coronavirus pandemic, with healthcare professionals routinely silenced for questioning inefficiencies or resorting to social media to highlight issues such as the lack of protective personal equipment. In India, there are over 1.2 million doctors, but considering the spiraling population of the country, this count amounts to much less than the 1:1000 recommended by the World Health Organisation.
India counts some 9,000 COVID-19 patients, 90 of which are healthcare professionals. One doctor has lost his life in Madhya Pradesh. Despite this, doctors are being reprimanded and threatened of dismissal if they continue to share their plight on social media platforms. Four doctors from New Delhi’s Hindu Rao Hospital have not only been subjected to questioning by the authorities but the federal government has requested the administrators of their Whatsapp chat groups to share details of names, phone numbers and emails with the police. These actions were descrided by Balvinder Singh Arora, the head of the hospital medical team as a “deterrent against sharing fake news”.
Another doctor, Kolkata-based oncologist Indranil Khan, has gone through a worse experience. After sharing images of doctors wearing raincoats on Twitter – leading, ironically, to assurances by the region’s health departments, that “immediate steps” would be taken to improve this situation, Khan was detained by the police. After hours of questioning and a night locked-up, he was only release after posting on social media that the state government was working hard for doctors. The 31 year old doctor was also charged with causing communal disharmony and criminal intimidation. Khan contested these charges in court, which in turn lambasted government’s intimidation.
In a press statement, the Indian Government insisted that the availability of PPE has “doubled”, insisting that it is providing adequate secure equipment to its healthcare professionals.
