India’s steps behind low mortality: Funeral service firms

All over the world, mortality rates are being scrutinised to determine the true impact of the coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year and is known to have infected more than 2.7 million people globally, with nearly 190,000 deaths.

While death rates in some countries have risen sharply in recent weeks, in India the opposite seems to be happening, at least in some places, leaving hospitals, funeral parlours and cremation sites wondering what is going on.

“It’s very surprising for us,” said Shruthi Reddy, chief executive officer of Anthyesti Funeral Services, which operates in of Kolkata and the southern tech hub of Bengaluru.

The company handled about five jobs a day in January but has only had about three a day this month. Other numbers tell a similar story. Central Mumbai, home to some 12 million people, saw deaths fall by about 21% in March compared with the same month of 2019, according to municipal data.

Overall deaths plummeted 67% in Ahmedabad, the biggest city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, over the same period. Data from at least two other cities, along with accounts from state health officials, show a similar pattern. Half a dozen funeral businesses and crematoriums also reported slumps in business, especially in April.

“If we’re not seeing an increase in deaths, the suspicion that there may be more COVID-19 fatalities out there is not true,” said Giridhar Babu, professor of epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India.

India’s apparently lower death rates stands in contrast to what has been seen elsewhere. The Netherlands recorded about 2,000 more deaths than normal in the first week of April, for example, while in Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta the number of funerals rose sharply in March. Some towns in Italy also saw a jump in recorded deaths.

Indian doctors, officials and crematorium employees suspect the lower death rate is in large part attributable to fewer road and rail accidents. The coronavirus lockdown, which is due to end on May 3, will cut road deaths by at least 15% this year compared with 2018, Paresh Kumar Goel, a director at the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, said.

“There could be an increase when the lockdown ends,” said Dr Bhavin Joshi, a senior health department official with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Requests for India-wide data from the national registrar went unanswered, while an official at the New Delhi Municipal Council said they could not provide numbers.

Reuters was also unable to obtain data for West Bengal, where some doctors have accused the government of understating coronavirus deaths.