Odisha’s Dirty Secret: The Big Covid Deaths Cover-Up?

It has been the worst-kept secret in Odisha since the beginning of the pandemic. But now it is all out in the open. Fresh revelations following RTI queries have proved what has been the subject of animated discussion among the public for months: the gross under-reporting of Covid deaths in the state. As per official figures ­released by the state government on July 5, a total of 4,248 people died of Covid in the state since March last year. But an RTI response from the same government says no less than 3,480 people died of the coronavirus infection by the end of December 2020 and all of them were cremated at Satya Nagar crematorium in Bhubaneswar. Given the fact that the second wave of the pandemic—and with it, the number of deaths caused by it—was at its peak in May-June this year, cremations in Satya Nagar alone would outnumber the official Covid figures for the entire state.

“The fire keeps burning from morning till late evening, making breathing difficult for passersby. On an average, 30-40 bodies are cremated every day,” says social activist Anuradha Dash, a resident of Satya Nagar who has been spearheading a movement for shifting the crematorium from the area.

Reports coming in from elsewhere in the state tell a similar story. Over 250 people had been cremated by the end of June in Puri’s Girala cremation ground—set up this April exclusively for those dying of Covid. But “official” figures released by the government say only 107 people died of Covid in the whole of Puri district during this per­iod. The differential could have been passed off as deaths of people from other districts, but for the ban on crem­ation of such people in the holy town.

The problem with hiding Covid deaths, say experts, is that unlike other casualties, those who succumb to the disease have to be cremated separately in compliance with the protocol set by the Centre. Thus, there is no way Covid deaths can be passed off as deaths due to other causes. The cremation figures are bound to give the game away. But the government is trying to keep the casualties below their actual number by attributing many Covid fatalities as deaths caused by other reasons. The government’s job has been made easier by the fact that most of the positive people who die have comorbidities. But truth, as they say, has a way of coming out into the open. As it does so, the credibility of the Odisha government, which has earned some well-­deserved praise for its handling of the pandemic, has taken a serious hit.

(This appeared in the print edition as "Deaths Unaccounted")

By Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar