It is also significant to note that these are merely Hindu deaths, tracked through the traditional cremations that are a part of religious last rites. India has a sizeable Muslim and Christian population, and the state’s numbers appear to be underreported even without taking into account those burials.

What is a COVID Death?

According to the World Health Organization, a death should be recorded as Covid-19-related if the disease is assumed to have caused or contributed to it, even if the person had a pre-existing medical condition, such as cancer. In many places in India, that doesn’t seem to be happening. Rupal Thakkar tested positive for Covid-19 in mid-April. On April 16, she was admitted to Shalby Limited, a private hospital in her home city of Ahmedabad, but her oxygen levels suddenly dropped. The next day Ms. Thakkar, 48, died.

The hospital listed her cause of death as “sudden cardiac death,” which left the Thakkar family outraged. “It was a lifetime shock,” said her younger brother, Dipan Thakkar. “Why would a private hospital connive with the government in hiding the real death numbers? It was an organized crime. It was an illegal act.” Officials at Shalby didn’t respond to requests for comment.

After her situation was widely publicized in Indian newspapers, the hospital issued a second death certificate, this time including Covid-19 as a contributing cause.

Possible Reasons for Underreporting of COVID Deaths

Some families don’t want the truth to come out, said Dr. Mukherjee of the University of Michigan. Some want to cremate loved ones outside strict Covid-19 government protocols, and so they hide the fact that their family member died from the coronavirus. Others may feel ashamed about losing a loved one, as if it were their fault.

A political agenda may also be at play, experts said. States controlled by India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, may face pressure to underreport, according to some analysts. Dr. Mukherjee cited the very public scandal in 2019 when Mr. Modi’s government tried to suppress data showing a rise in the unemployment rate. When it comes to Covid data, she said, “there is tremendous pressure from the central government on the state governments for projecting progress.”

Several officials from the governing party did not respond to messages from the NY Times seeking comment. But manipulating death numbers seems to be happening in other places, too. One example is the state of Chhattisgarh, in central India, which is run by the leading opposition party, Congress. Officials in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district, home to a large steel plant, reported more than 150 Covid-19 deaths from April 15 to April 21, according to messages sent to local media that were seen by The Times. The state reported less than half that number for Durg. Chhattisgarh’s health minister, T.S. Singh Deo, denied any intentional underreporting. “We have tried to be as transparent as humanly possible,” he said. “We stand to be corrected at any point in time.”

The Digpu News Bottomline

The second wave of the pandemic has hit India hard and strong with the country’s Union Health Minister getting caught promoting the scam Coronil of Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali. While the government ignored all the red flags and warnings issued by experts last year, the country has been caught in a cycle of death with the official daily death count threatening to hit 5000 any day. The incompetence of Indian policymakers was exposed and the Central and State governments were left red-faced. That is where all the governments seem to have come up with the joint strategy of manipulating and understating the death rate.

Even though the official numbers continue to understate the situation, the government needs to understand that the ghosts of crematorium grounds have long taken the veil off of this plan.