Has anyone seen what's going on on India?

[twinkletits99]

I've just seen some of the footage and am reduced to tears. People bring beaten in the streets. Migrants being forced to bathe in disinfectant spray. People breaking down because they fear they are going to starve to death before coronavirus has a chance to take them. I'm quarter Indian and whilst I have no real connection to India other than that, I couldn't help but feel utterly hopeless for them.

I do wonder how logical it is for governments in developing countries to be copying the policies that were put in place in developed ones.

I don't know that it is just copying. I lived in Delhi for some time and lock downs to one degree or another were not usuall. Riots - curfews. Pollution = people only allowed to go out on odd or even days. That kind of thing.

It certainly has had coverage here. it was on BBC News yesterday, all those poor people squatting in the road being sprayed with disinfectant, not only sprayed but with the force of a hose.
Whatever did it do to them, inhaling all that toxic liquid? Horrifying.

Interesting Flea.

But also if they didn’t then what numbers would they see through CV?

Obviously not excusing the brutality of course with that pp

I heard about this on R4 yesterday. Arundhati Roy was interviewed, and her opinion was that the Indian PM was so out of touch he had no idea this would be a consequence of a sudden lockdown.

But also if they didn’t then what numbers would they see through CV?

Who knows. I'm not saying it's wrong to lock down, because I just don't know.

The police brutality doesn't surprise me. The corruption is horrendous and many in the force are just there for the power.

I bet. I don’t know much I admit but reading The White Tiger made rethink that rather idyllic Western version of travelling to India (sorry to reference a mere book but it was very well written and showed the vast inequality).

I've read The White Tiger. It's excellent and parts really resonated while I was there.

The images coming from India are frighteningly reminiscent of Partition. I fear that this may be just as disastrous.

It has been on Channel 4 News for days.Very sad!

I have been following it on the BBC. India has a massive cash economy, and most people only get paid when they work, so the knock on effect of sudden poverty for millions is going to have really devastating effects, as well as the risks from the virus, and the police.
People in India really need help and soon.
I found this charity that have just set up a fund:

www.iahv.org.uk/

and also

www.giveindia.org/

The threat of police brutality is often a good way to keep people in line. Example - the shops near where my bil lives in India started to charge four times as much for food. Considering food in India is already more expensive than the UK this was ridiculous. All it took was one police officer looming over the counter with his baton for six seconds and the shopkeeper’s policies miraculously reversed. Same with stockpiling - the police monitor every food shop to ensure nobody takes too much and they are even checking ration cards / ID cards in some areas to ensure people don’t take more than they need as a family in a week (they have lists of basic food items with quantities).

In a place the size of India with the diversity of India things like stockpiling and price inflation can kill as many people as the virus (probably more) and needs to be dealt with quickly and sharply

The thais were pouring out of the cities at the weekend on buses heading back to their villages. No work in the cities so they have to go home.

I did see some footage where the police were beating scooter drivers with long whippy lengths of hose.

We are luckier here.

@FleaTrainerExtraordinaire

And people here bleat police brutality if they are drone filmed or asked what they are doing?

But that's the point. Being able to and prepared to speak up over the minor transgressions are what keep the major ones at bay.

I agree moreso with the comment in italics, and to an extent with you, unless I have misunderstood:

• Using drones (based on how packed nature areas in Wales were the previous weekend) I do condone, especially in vast areas which may become overly populated if everyone goes there; it is an efficient use of technology in our current crisis.

• Being asked what you are doing isn't wrong

• Based on the minority (I hope) of people in the UK not sensibly following guidelines, a bit of fear (i.e. visible police / being asked why you are out etc) could be needed to help reduce the numbers of people who are not complying. You could argue it causes more anxiety and mental health problems, but at the same time some people with anxiety may feel safer knowing the lockdown is being policed a bit more.

We actually are lucky to be in the UK where things are fair-er than India. Indians have no opportunity (and never have) to stand up to their government to the same degree as they have here - India is ridiculously insanelyyy corrupt.

People love to have a go at the media.

This HAS been on the news. I’ve seen it on the BBC and on Sky.

It’s natural that the British media is focusing almost entirely on the British coronavirus. It’s a national crisis. Other countries are not our prime concern right now.

Perhaps the Indian govt cannot use some of the overseas aid we send them to resolve this problem.

India is a corrupt country. The wealthy, the business people, the politicians, the many who flee to other countries for a better standard of life but who proudly call themselves Indians: they do not care a jot for the poor. They leave the rest of the world to weep for their people instead of sorting it out themselves.

I wonder what the point is of this. Here we are doing it in the hope we can reduce the strain on the NHS so people can be treated.

But in India surely there won't be the medical facilities for everyone to be treated anyway?

Probably more people will live in India if they carry on working and have enough to eat so their bodies will have a better chance of fighting it off.

Sadly, the earth is at peak humans. India with I think 1.3BILLION, human life is cheap in India. Some of the richest people in the world are Indian and they really don’t care about poor people

@Frothybothie agreeee! We do sound a bit like spoilt kids at times especially after seeing what happened in China with people being welded into their homes/dragged out their homes; and now seeing India and Africa (lack of even the possibility of social distancing and all the police brutality on top).

Of course mainstream media are focusing on news in the UK and Europe. The impact of this virus is on South Africa is also pretty horrific.

It is tragic, and it will be continue to be so as it moves through the third world countries. I read today that the virus is in Syria now too. It makes me very grateful that I am facing this from a warm and comfortable home with an excellent healthcare service available. Once again, I am one of the luckiest people on the planet.

@mumoffluffs

When I talked about 'minor transgressions' I meant calling the police out when they are going beyond their power. My own personal view of what I want the police to do is not the issue. What the law says they can do is the important bit. If the police go beyond the law they must be brought back within it.

If I think the law itself is wrong, I must petition my governement to change the law.

The checks and balances of our justice system are important and stand on pillars of people holding every institution to account.

You can help here :

indiafightscorona.giveindia.org/support-families/

I was talking to an Indian friend (( on Facebook, much more than 6 feet apart, don't worry ! )) And she couldn't get her head around people moaning about the free school dinners they'd been handed.

She was saying back home if people aren't working and don't have family or friends to feed them they either steal or starve. We really don't realise how lucky we are here. And far too many don't appreciate it either.

Yes. Tragic doesn't begin to cover it.

I have family (in-laws) in both India and neighbouring Pakistan. With so many homeless in India, lockdown was only ever going to end this way. Thousands of people - including young children - live on the streets or bed down for the night on railway station platforms. Where were they ever going to go? Back to an ancestral village that they (or their parents) left in the first place because it couldn't feed them?

And the misinformation that is being spread amongst the frightened population (I've seen it on family WhatsApp groups) puts some of the bullshit here into the shade.