Gurugram: As the Millennium City grappled with the brutal second wave of Covid and residents in posh neighbourhoods with access to swanky healthcare were left to their own devices to scramble for beds, oxygen and medicines, villages in Gurugram kept dealing with the ferocity of the virus — district authorities unaware in many cases.
Until the second week of May, when the district was still reporting around 4,000 new infections every day, the district administration was completely unaware of the "illness" spreading in Pataudi's Bhaspadamka village where residents died without disclosing their symptoms out of fear of ostracism.
By the time officials figured out the virus' spread here, 12 people had died in a span of three weeks — all between 40 and 50 and all showing Covid-like symptoms.
It was only after one of the residents of Baspadamka highlighted the spate of deaths and plight of his fellow residents due to the infection on social media that officials finally acknowledged the problem and subsequently took action.
A team of officials was sent to the village where about 6,000 people live to conduct rapid antigen tests, which threw up 40 positive cases, which included children as young as 13.
There was also a disturbing observation that in a span of just three weeks there were 12 deaths that were reported from the village all of which were suspected cases of COVID-19.
Reportedly, as per villagers, most of the people whose condition deteriorated due to suspected COVID-19 infection and ultimately led to death did not report the disease due to fear of ostracism.
Naveen Kumar, a resident who came forward and highlighted the plight of his village to the District Administration also was able to experience the disease closely as his family members also got infected from COVID-19. Luckily for Naveen, his family members had mild symptoms of COVID-19 and were able to recover, unlike many from his village who were not able to survive.
"Many of our residents know how dangerous this infection was this time. Earlier, even though many people who contracted the infection could recover but this time it has been extremely bad," said Kumar, who works in an auto manufacturing plant.
Just like several villages in Gurugram, residents of Bhaspadamka also suffered from a shortage of basic health facilities. Residents have to go to Gurugram or Pataudi for getting tested or get medicines for themselves or their families.
"Forget residents of Gurugram, even officials for a long time of what was happening in our village till someone literally had to bang their doors and request them to take some action. When you have poor health facilities, lack of service attitude among officials and also carelessness among residents, then the situation is going to become worse and that is what has happened," said Pradeep, a resident of the village which is now surviving on donations from self-help groups.