It’s Day 73 of Lockdown in Nepal. Besides not stepping out of home and hanging out with my loved one’s. Nothing much has changed in life, I enjoy my regular meals, work from home at my own comfort, shop for groceries and daily essentials online as needed. Most importantly I am getting to spend some good time taking care of my toddler daughter. I feed her variety of healthy food options every two-three hours. As a mother there is nothing more rewarding than taking care of your babies. Those of us living in big cities are the fortunate ones’ living a privileged life. However, amid continuous lockdown, for a great dimensions of mothers this has been a saddening time.
A 29 year old woman died of Covid-19 on May 14 while on her way to hospital from her village in Sindhupalchok. On May 13, the woman’s mother visited them to see if the baby was well. Instead, she noticed her daughter was going to the toilet frequently and that night she complained of difficulty in breathing and had a dry cough. Being a health worker herself, the woman’s mother tried to find a vehicle to take her to hospital but there was NONE AVAILABLE. Had they been able to get an ambulance immediately, may be she could have made it!
The other day, I saw a post on ‘Maggie Doyle’s’ instagram. Little girls and an expecting mother lying on the road without food and water. A pregnant women and tiny little kids starving themselves to death while trying to reach home since getting inside of Nepal from India.
Since, the lockdown there has been a 200 percent increase in maternal mortality rate. At least 24 women have died of birth-related complications in the last two months, compared to 80 death in all of last year.
In the meantime, Corona is wide spreading in all corners of the country from plains to the hills and mountains. The number of patients has surpassed 2000, government has failed in carrying out tests in massive numbers. It’s essential that private hospitals with PCR test machines get license to carry out tests. People have lost lives not in ventilators but inside of a so-called government quarantine homes. The government even with 77 CDOs and 7 Pradesh sarkars, has proven that it exists only for itself.
Amidst these, we hear stories of PRESIDENT replacing her carpets worth a crore. Prime minister building nearly a crore worth indoor gym and a Karnali Parliamentarian replacing his ride worth more than 2.5 crores.
It’s just heart-breaking to stay home and live a PLAY PRETEND regular life, while there are mothers and children losing their lives to Corona and Governments negligence. With such snail paced government Corona is likely to travel every household in Nepal.
Just locking people inside of their homes, abandoning them of basic rights isn’t going to help! WE NEED MORE TESTS, VISION and an EXIT PLAN.
