Covid-19 crisis: Deaths stalk villages but locals still in denial

The first of a 4-part series looks at the weak health infra, vaccine hesitancy in rural UP

In the small village-town of Achheja in Gautam Budh Nagar of Uttar Pradesh, many houses have placed a bucket filled with water and neem tree twigs outside their doors. The locals say that this means that there has been a death in the family recently, and all visitors are expected to wash at the entrance. 

The village, which has a population of around 5000, has witnessed about 25 deaths in the last one month. “Ten-15 of them were just boys. Families have been destroyed...Covid hit us like a storm,” says Harinder Nagar, the gram pradhan or the village head.