Covid-19 Pandemic : India hospitals rejecting Muslims amid coronavirus pandemic, 2 babies die

Municipal workers spray disinfectant on people standing in a line next to a mobile test station for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a residential area in the old quarters of Delhi, India, on April 20, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

Two babies have died in India after hospitals refused to admit their Muslim mothers over their faith, as the pandemic is causing a spike in discrimination against minority Muslims in the country.

Rizwana Khatun, a 30-year-old Muslim woman, miscarried after health authorities cited the religion of the pregnant woman as grounds for refusing to admit her at a hospital in Jharkhand State.

The woman had rushed to the hospital after she began bleeding. Accused of spreading the coronavirus, she was barred from receiving treatment and was also beaten.

Earlier this month, a baby died after a government hospital in the Bharatpur district of Rajasthan refused to admit the Muslim mother. The pregnant woman delivered the child inside the ambulance but the infant could not survive.

Indian Muslims complain they are being refused access to some hospitals, pharmacies, and grocery stores across different regions of the country.

One hospital in the northern city of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh earlier ran an advertisement saying it would not admit Muslims without a negative COVID-19 test. Hindus are not being asked to provide such test results.

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has blamed the spread of the coronavirus on a Muslim missionary group meeting in New Delhi in mid-March.

But similar gatherings within Hindu communities have escaped criticism.

The country’s Muslim minority population has since witnessed a string of attacks by Hindu extremists.

Muslim leaders say the event should not be used as an excuse to target the community as a whole.
Some India observers say linking the virus to the Muslim organization could result in more religious hatred in the South Asian country.

Inter-communal tension has risen in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of the BJP, was re-elected for a second term in 2019.

Modi’s government is accused of encouraging religious intolerance and seeking to transform India into a Hindu state.

Last December, India’s parliament passed a new citizenship law that is seen as discriminatory toward Muslims. Under the law, migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan will be allowed to claim Indian citizenship — but not if they are Muslims.

The act has led to deadly protests. At least 50 people died as Hindu-nationalist mobs attacked Muslim in New Delhi.

New Delhi also announced in August last year that it was removing the special status of the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

Earlier this month, India introduced a new law that would make its citizens eligible to become permanent residents of the Indian-administered Kashmir, raising fears of demographic change in the Himalayan region.

Kashmir is a disputed territory. It has been split between India and Pakistan since their partition in 1947. The countries have fought three wars over the territory.