India's stalling of WHO report on Covid deaths is wrong

It’s clear that Covid deaths have been underreported

The dispute between India and the World Health Organization over the number of Covid deaths in the country and the reported attempt of the government to stall the world body’s report on excess deaths does not do the country any credit. The WHO report has recorded about six million deaths more than recorded by countries, as almost all countries have underreported deaths. The government has disputed the report’s findings and denied excess deaths altogether and has told WHO to put off the publication of the report by 10 years. The report has estimated that there were at least four million deaths in India, which is nearly eight times the official toll of 522,000. The estimate is based on computation by a team of experts who have relied on various data sources. Other agencies and experts within the country and outside have also made such calculations using surveys, hospital data, compensation claims, crematorium records etc. All such computations have found that the official claims are far from true.

The government has said that the WHO computations are based on “unverified’’ data and have used wrong methodologies. The contestation is unconvincing because there is tell-tale evidence of gross underreporting of deaths in the country. In Gujarat, the state government paid compensation to families of 87,000 people who died of Covid-19 though the state’s official death toll stands at about 10,000. The number of cremations done according to Covid protocol in all cities far exceeded the official records. A large number of deaths happened at home and many of them would not have been recorded. Registration of deaths has even otherwise been poor in most states. While it is near 100% in states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, it is less than 70% in some North Indian states. So, it is clear that there have been many more Covid deaths than reported.

The government’s objection to the publication of the report is wrong, and is against the people’s interests. It is of a piece with the government’s policy of denying any report, survey or findings done by any agency that it considers unfavourable or unflattering. It had told the Supreme Court that there were no migrant workers on the roads at the beginning of the pandemic, and it has always rejected reports about the decline of democratic standards and attacks on citizens’ rights in the country. The government has claimed that it has done better than other countries in managing the Covid crisis. It has objected to the WHO report probably because the report falsifies its claims. But that is a bad response and wrong policy. Correct statistics will only help the country understand the Covid crisis better and equip it to deal with it better in future.