: India has a history of undercounting its dead #IndiaNEWS If overburdened crematoriums were not enough, India now has unidentified bodies washing up the banks of river Ganga, adding to the worry that

India has a history of undercounting its dead #IndiaNEWS
If overburdened crematoriums were not enough, India now has unidentified bodies washing up the banks of river Ganga, adding to the worry that the country is vastly undercounting its Covid-19 deaths.Nearly six weeks after the Covid-19 situation in the country became alarming, the number of deaths because of the disease reported from various districts has been inconsistent with data from crematoriums and graveyards. Indian newspapers in regional languages like Gujarati have been doggedly calling out the state government for glaring gaps in death reporting.Even in large metropolises like Delhi, the deaths officially counted by the government are far fewer than those counted by the civic authorities overseeing crematoriums.There is now fear that India will never truly know the extent of the fatalities from this pandemic, given how many deaths go unnoticed even under normal circumstances.History of undercountingA 1969 law mandates that all births and deaths are legally registered in India. While the country’s abysmal record-keeping in this regard has improved since 1970 when the Registration of Births and Deaths Act was implemented, it still remained at 86% as of 2018, according to the Civil Registration Scheme report, an annual report by the government on death and birth data. That means, nearly 14% of all deaths are not officially recorded.This figure is based...Read more

Stock Market NEWS Best intraday tips Intraday Stocks below 100