Supreme Court says ground reality is Covid-19 patients treated as untouchables after posters pasted outside homes
New Delhi: Coronavirus has made our lives exceedingly awful. People have gone through dreadful hardships which have turned their lives upside down. Covid-19’s first case in India came in January and now at the end of the year also people are suffering through it. Some states are putting up posters outside Covid-19 patients stating that they have been found positive for the infection, but that is increasing their suffering. These patients are being treated as ‘untouchables’, which the Supreme Court on Tuesday rightly pointed out during a hearing on the issue.
Covid-19 crisis made everyone’s life miserable and people who are getting affected by the disease are being treated as untouchables by the society. One side they had to suffer from the hardships of the coronavirus and the other side they also had to tackle the strange behavior of relatives and neighbors.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that,” Once posters are pasted outside the homes of coronavirus patients, the people affected are treated as “untouchables”.
According to news agency PTI, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the health ministry, said that “ Any such kind of instructions are not given or mentioned anywhere, people must be following this practice for their safety. So that the spread of coronavirus gets low.
The practice does not convey that anyone should “condemn” covid-19 patients, the only aim of the practice is to protect other people from the corona virus by which number of people are dying., the lawyer told the bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah.
The Supreme Court raised its voice for the people who are suffering through covid-19 and strange behavior of people who are considering the covid-19 patients as untouchables. “Once such posters are pasted at their homes, they are treated as untouchables,” the bench said.Tushar Mehta said the Centre has filed its reply to the appeal in pursuance of the top court’s direction asking to stop the practice of applying posters on people’s houses who are covid-19 patients.
The Supreme Court said in its order that, “Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, submits that affidavit on behalf of the Union of India has been filed on November 30. Let the affidavit be placed on the record. List on December 3.”Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary with the ministry, has filed an affidavit saying that all states have been intimated to this effect that the MoHFW has not issued any such guideline to identify the Covid-19 patients.
The affidavit stated, “The central government, through MoHFW has already communicated to the Additional Chief Secretaries …secretaries [Health] of all the states and UTs pointing it out that the MoHFW guidelines do not contain any instructions or guidance regarding affixing of posters or other signage outside the residences of those found Covid-19 positive. The central government has, therefore, requested all the states and UTs to ensure scrupulous compliance of MoHFW guidelines on this behalf.”The Supreme Court on November 5 has asked the centre to consider the given guidelines, for people who are suffering through untouchability. The bench said that when the Delhi government has agreed in the high court to not to paste posters on covid-19 patients’ houses then why cannot the central government apply that. Aam Aadmi Party on November 3 told the high court that from now on, no new posters will be applied on walls of covid patients and also which are already posted they will be removed.
Alra, in his plea before the high court, had contended that freely circulating to Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and on Whatsapp groups, the names of persons who tested positive for Covid-19 was “leading to stigmatization and drawing of unnecessary attention”. They are drawing public attention towards them which is affecting the society and is communicating a wrong message against the covid-19 patients.
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