Heat And Apathy

Munni Devi, 45, a resident of Kokar area in Ranchi, was a daily wage earner. Sometimes, when there was less work, she would take up odd rag-picking jobs. On June 18, after selling the garbage she had picked, she started walking back home at 4 PM.

“She felt dizzy and started vomiting. People from a nearby house offered her water. She collapsed and was rushed to RIMS (Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences), where she was declared dead,” informs her sister Jhariyo Tirkey.

The deceased hailed from Gumla district and had moved to Ranchi to earn a livelihood, leaving behind her husband and two children. Now there is no earning member. Her brother Dinesh Tirkey has filed a case with the Sadar Police Station for want of compensation. The police say they are waiting for the post-mortem report.

Munni Devi is just another casualty of the brutal heat wave that Jharkhand is reeling under. However, like many others, she will not make it to the list of casualties who have died in the state due to the heat wave. No such list exists. And in the absence of any official list, providing compensation to the families of heat wave victims seems like a long shot.

The family of Mala Devi, 62, is not even hopeful of getting any compensation. A resident of Dumariya village in Godda block of Jharkhand, Devi died on June 16, the day the temperature touched 45.9 degree Celsius.  

“My aunt was perfectly fine in the morning. At 12 noon, she started feeling unwell and said her throat had gone dry. She did not feel better even after sipping water, so we rushed her to the Sadar Hospital. But by the time we reached, she passed away,” says her nephew Anant Jha.  

The doctor said she died because of heat stroke. “Everything happened within a couple of hours. Even if we ask for compensation, it’s not going to bring my aunt back. But we will discuss with her family and ask for financial help. The heat this year has been unbearable. The government should help families of those who have died due to the intense heat,” says Jha.

‘Heat Wave Deaths Not Counted’

Many districts of Jharkhand have been reeling under an intense heat wave. While most districts got some respite between June 19 and 21 thanks to the arrival of the monsoon, people in Palamu were not so lucky. The temperature in the district was still in the range of 42.4-44.3 degrees Celcius.

On June 18—the day the temperature touched 44.7—Ashok Ram (25) and Vishwanath Ram (60), both residents of Medninagar Police Station area in Palamu, lost their lives. Local police station says that the post-mortem report will take some time, but it looks they died due to heat stroke.

Talking about the deaths of the two, local journalist Dheeraj Vishwakarma, who has been covering stories on Palamu for a long time, says: “The main problem is that these deaths occurring due to heat are not being reported and no post-mortem is being conducted.”

People end up treating their family members at home. In case of deaths, people perform the last rites but are not bothering about post-mortem reports. “Nearly 27 last rites were performed at a ghat in Medninagar in the past two months. A municipal corporation worker informed me that these deaths were on account of heat wave and heart attacks. There are more than 100 ghats in the district. The figure being mentioned is only for the Hindu community.”

According to Vishwakarma, in the last few days, he has covered deaths of four people dying of heat wave in the urban pockets of the district.

As per a report published in Dainik Bhaskar on June 19, 14 people lost their lives in the state between June 17 and 18, out of which eight belonged to the Palamu. A lead story published on the first page of Prabhat Khabar mentions four people, including a police personnel, had died due to heat wave in Dhandbad. Hindustan had reported eight deaths in the Garhwa district.

Godda has recorded the highest temperature in the state this year. On June 18, the maximum temperature in the district was 46.5 degrees.

As per the medical officer at Godda Sadar Hospital, most of the patients coming to the hospital suffered from heat stroke. Many people were declared dead on arrival. Those who were in critical conditions were referred to other hospitals. Abhijeet, a local journalist, says that between June 17 and 18, 18 people died on account of heat stroke. He also says around 40 to 50 people have died in the district due to heat wave. The victims are mostly senior citizens. Many such reports are coming from other districts of the state, too.

“No Heat Wave Deaths in State”

Despite these media reports and doctors’ statements, the government still refuses to accept that these deaths have been due to the heat wave. On June 21, Banna Gupta, Jharkhand’s Health and Disaster Management Minister, conducted a high-level video conference with the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and the Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai. After the meeting, while briefing the media, Gupta said: “The entire nation is reeling under the impact of the heat wave. There have been both, physical and, material losses in many states. However, we are lucky that Jharkhand has not been affected. Not a single case of death due to heat wave has been reported in the state.”

So, if the post-mortem reports show that the deaths have been due to the heat wave, will these families get compensation? The answer is no. These deaths are not registered with central or state disaster management agencies. This means, neither the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) nor State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) is obliged to give any compensation.

“Heat Wave a National Disaster”

Gupta has asked the central government to inc­lude heat wave-related deaths in the category of disaster management. He informed that reasons have to be specified for deaths due to heat or cold waves and the central government needs to issue clear directives in this regard. There has to be clarity on which provisions should be taken into account while providing compensation to these victims and who would give this compensation.

Pratul Shahdeo, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson from Jharkhand, feels the state government is not at all serious as far as the deaths due to heat wave are concerned. “Ministers are sitting in their AC chambers, while the poor are dying on roads,” he says. He asks even if these deaths are not included in the disaster management category, can’t the chief minister provide compensation? “In case of a disaster, even district collectors have the authority to give compensation. Why isn’t the government doing anything?”

(Translated by Kaveri Mishra)