India is breaking the record for daily COVID deaths.
In April 2021, it became the world's new COVID epicenter.
And the state of Maharashtra,
home to Mumbai, was the worst-hit region.
And India's lower castes
are bearing the brunt of the country's COVID crisis.
Working in crematoriums and sanitation facilities,
they are some of the most at risk.
They're the ones disposing of the dead.
And risk getting exposed
when dealing with COVID victims and their family members.
Many of them don't have much protection besides their cloth masks.
Even before COVID, the Dalit community was one of the most at risk in India,
but their plight usually went unheard.
In COVID, that distinction has become even worse.
The state of Maharashtra has the
highest number of cases in India,
by a large margin.
In the city of Badlapur on the outskirts of Mumbai,
Deepak Chauhan does the difficult work of cremating COVID bodies.
Deepak is part of the Dalit community
that accounts for about 20% of India's population.
Dalits occupy the lowest rank in India'scaste system,
which is why many of them work in
which is why many of them work in crematoriums and in sanitation services.
In the peak of the second wave,
In the peak of the second wave, this crematorium was burning about two dozen bodies
every day.
Not only were workers not able to rest,
they weren't able to use adequate protection.
There is around a 100°C temperature [212°F].
So when we wear a PPE kit, we will also feel the heat, no?
So it is impossible to work, wearing a PPE kit.
Crematorium workers who are from other marginalized communities
say the risk of COVID was always present.
It was constant.
In 20-25 dead bodies,
there were around 17-20 COVID-19 patients.
Deepak says he's been working at this crematorium for 27 years.
And he's asking the government to do more.
Even though they work on the front lines, Deepak and his coworkers are unlikely
to get a vaccine any time soon,
partly because the national government doesn't
actually consider them to be front-line workers.
The lack of government support has forced Dalit organizers to fill the gaps.
Ramatai Ahire works for the National Dalit Movement for Justice
and is a social worker in Mumbai's Chembur neighborhood.
Her main work is to interact with her community and advocate for their needs.
But today, she's working as a grief counselor.
Shodha Babar lost her husband to COVID.
And Ramatai is here to figure out what happened.
Three members of the Babar home got infected at the same time
and were all taken to different medical facilities.
Shoda's husband died after being hospitalized for four days.
Her stepson, Pravin, was in the hospital for two weeks.
And he remembers how overwhelmed the hospitals were during the peak.
Pravin is home now,
but without his father.
Ramatai blames the death on government incompetence.
While COVID has had a big impact, Ramatai says for those who live in
India's poor, makeshift neighborhoods, things have always been bad.
But COVID just isn't another disease the Dalit community has to combat.
They also have to fight the economic strains the pandemic has caused.
More than 140 million jobs have been lost in India due to the pandemic.
Most of them are in what Indians call the "informal sector": low-paying jobs
where Dalit and other marginalized groups work.
The economic strain caused by COVID is what Ramatai worries about the most.
And getting the government to financially help the Dalit community
is her next big task.
Even though caste discrimination was made illegal in 1955,
the reality of caste structure still exists
when it comes to education and jobs -
and the lingering biases.
So there are still in 2021,
yes, there is discrimination.
People who belong to specific caste will go to the doctors of the specific caste.
Rewat Kaninde is a doctor. He's also from the Dalit community.
And he says the government's actions have not been equal among India's
different communities and castes.
The effects are there, according to the caste.
The privileged ones are getting good treatment.
And those who are underprivileged,
those who belong to backward class and caste,
they are getting less treatment, we can say.
The divide is even more apparent when it comes to vaccine access.
India just announced that all adults over 18 can now get a vaccine,
but those with money can purchase slots at private hospitals.
Making the divide between the haves and have-nots even greater.
So in case of India, no, we are not equally getting vaccinated.
No, we are not getting vaccinated according
to the social structure.
There are practical differences too.
Many from the Dalit community and marginalized castes live in Maharashtra's tenements.
These buildings, called "chawls,"
are so close together that social distancing isn't possible.
It's another reason why people from India's marginalized groups,
like Dalits and Muslims, are more at risk for COVID.
That risk has led to more discrimination.
Sagar Sakhare is a driver and a part-time social worker.
He said his bosses told him not to come to work because he lives in a condensed chawl
with lots of families.
But even outside of the pandemic, Sagar says marginalized groups have always
faced difficulty.
Many Dalits have overcome caste barriers to succeed in their respective fields.
Dr. Rewat is an example of that.
He pointed out that the Indian Constitution helps protect those
from the Dalit community and other marginalized groups.
But he says that Indian society needs to transform its thinking.
Our founders, they took efforts to make India secular,
that every single person from India should get equal opportunity.
They put everything in the constitution,
but sadly our mindset is not changing.