Coronavirus poses problems of a different kind for this Uttar Pradesh village

Coronavirus outbreak in the country may have consumed lives, forced people in quarantine and also resulted in the nationwide lockdown, the residents of a hitherto nondescript village in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district, about 90 kilometres from here, have been facing problems of a different kind.

And their problems stem from the name of their village-'Korona'. Though in English it there is a difference in how the word is spelt, there is no difference if one utters the name in Hindi.

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The residents of the village complain that they have been experiencing a lot of problems simply because of the name of the village. ''People avoid us....they keep away from us as if we are untouchables or suffering from the disease (Coronavirus),'' said a resident.

''We have become a laughing stock in the society,'' the resident remarked.

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The fact that the village was very close to the famous religious town of Naimisharanya, which was flocked by lakhs of Hindu devotees around the year, has not helped in mitigating their stigma.

The residents of the village, which has a population of around seven thousand, have been following the lockdown guidelines in letter and spirit.

They can not, however, change the name of their village.