"I was burning with fever, barely able to stand, or breathe properly, let alone work. I felt extremely weak and parched. Despite that, I dragged myself to Panchayat election duty in Uttar Pradesh. I knew I had COVID, along with hundreds of other teachers who complained of similar symptoms. Hundreds of lives could have been saved if only the government listened to us and postponed the elections."??
Gajendra Kumar Verma, a 47-year-old teacher from Unnao, narrates this horrific tale from the hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh, where more than 1,600 teachers have died of COVID-19.?
In Unnao district alone, 34 teachers who were assigned poll duties, died of the deadly infection, out of which seven were 'shiksha mitras', 24 teachers and an instructor.
¡°We could have never thought of such horror unfolding right before our eyes," lamented Verma, who is also the general secretary of district Unnao for Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, the apex teachers' body in the state, battling with the state government for compensation to the kin of deceased.
While Gajendra Kumar Verma showed all the symptoms of COVID, he couldn't get a test done for the lack of healthcare facilities in villages.
Verma says he was not in a state to drive alone to the poll duty centre, which was 50 kilometres away from his home. A friend, who was also on poll duty, drove them down. The two women officers in their team were extremely ill, so they were relieved early of their duties. Sharing his plight, Verma adds that he kept popping paracetamols to remain functional all night.
Polling for all the gram panchayats, kshetra panchayats and zila panchayats was held on April 15, 19, 26 and 29.?
Verma was posted to Ganj Moradabad as the presiding officer of the panchayat elections in the district. His poll duty was scheduled for 25 to 26th April.?
He says that after Holi, an infection surge was registered in the state. Thousands of teachers, who were showing signs of a COVID infection, had no other choice but to go for election duty. "OPDs at hospitals were shut. Health of thousands of people was in the hands of quacks and a few small-time medical stores in villages," Verma adds.
"You talk to a friend or an acquaintance in the morning and a few hours later you receive the news of their death. Numerous families have been devastated, children are orphaned, many lost sole-earners of their families. We kept requesting the state government to push election dates, but our pleas fell on deaf ears," Verma says, adding that he lost dozens of acquaintances and friends to COVID in a span of a few weeks this year.
In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the State Election Commission had said that not more than five people would be allowed to accompany a candidate during the door-to-door campaigning for the panchayat elections.
At the district level, the chief medical officers were made nodal officers and stress was laid on COVID-19 prevention.
Voters had to mandatorily wear masks and maintain social distancing at polling booths. SEC issued instructions to make circles maintaining a distance of six feet between voters standing in the queue.
Verma says COVID norms were completely ignored and forgotten.
¡°Unlike Lok Sabha or Assembly elections, panchayat elections are massive. The turnout in rural elections is mostly around 90 per cent, as opposed to other state level elections or national elections, where mostly the highest turnout is not more than 60 per cent, in best case scenarios,¡± Verma adds.
On the government¡¯s preparedness, Verma noted that there were no arrangements made to isolate and quarantine those who were called in for poll duty from states other than Uttar Pradesh. People from states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, etc, immediately joined poll duty or went to vote without any quarantine, accelerating the transmission of virus to more individuals."
"There was no social distancing in the electoral process. Voting was held in a tiny room, with barely any ventilation, where it was impossible to follow social distancing norms. As a result, thousands of teachers, staff members, and voters got infected, and became the carriers of the fatal virus further deep in villages," says Verma, adding that many of them died before they could receive any medical help.
Verma and his 43-year-old wife Neelam Devi, are still recovering from a month-long illness. They both have been taking medicines since April 2, and the illness doesn't show any signs of going away soon.??
He says medicines for the treatment of COVID are extremely expensive, and the financial burden for a teacher from the hinterlands is much higher.?
¡°When I look around, I see pain which can¡¯t be forgotten at least in this lifetime,¡± he says with a lump in his throat.