A Dalit Christian woman in the southern Indian state of Telangana has died in custody after allegedly being tortured by police.
Maid Ambadipudi Mariyamma of Yadadri-Bhongir district was booked along with her minor son Udaykiran on June 17 by Addagudur police after a complaint of theft by her employers, according to media reports.
Her relatives and daughter Swapna alleged that she was tortured by police while in detention.
Mariyamma, 44, was found collapsed early on June 18 at the police station and was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared her dead.
“When people in America protested after a black man was killed and started a campaign — Black Lives Matter — some people here voiced Dalit Lives Matter. The time has come to intensify it,” Father Z. Devasagaya Raj, former secretary of the Indian bishops’ office of Dalits and backward classes, told.
“Dalits and minorities community are always at the receiving end at the hands of people of so-called high society, elite groups, administration and government, hence police brutality upon them is nothing new. Anyone who speaks up for Dalits and the downtrodden is subject to attacks or branded anti-national.”
Pastor Sudarsan Masih of the Apostolic Christian Assembly Church in Khammam told UCA News that members were shocked to learn about the incident.
“Our prayers are with the family of the woman and we pray that there will be a fair and unbiased investigation and the culprit will be booked,” he said.
“The government should do justice to poor and underprivileged people, otherwise it will give them the wrong message and cause insecurity among them.”

Anong Singpho had never imagined that his singing videos on social media would one day make him the first Bollywood star from Arunachal Pradesh.
The 27-year-old, who performs regularly at functions at Miao’s Government Higher Secondary School, used social media platforms to showcase his singing talents.
One such video caught the attention of Zee Music Company, a popular Indian music company and a subsidiary of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, and it offered him to sing for their label.
“It is dream-come-true moment for me,” said Singhpo, a resident of Miao Singpho village in Changlang district. “Growing up, I always used to have dreams about singing for a Bollywood music company. I never imagined that would actually happen to me through this famous music label.”
Singhpo’s music single, Laut Aao Maa, was released by Zee Music Company as a tribute all mothers on Mother’s Day this year and within a span of one month the video has been viewed by 1.4 million viewers on video sharing platform YouTube alone.
Picturized with the junior reality show cont-estant, Oupseng Namchoom, the single highlights the emotions a child goes through in the absence of his mother in this soothing number.
The single is a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. The song has been well received by people across the country. More than 1.4 million people have made positive comments on the video, singling out Singhpo’s voice for special appreciation.
The only son of Innao Ladoi Singpho and Jamai Thu Singpho, the singing sensation says the response from people across the country has been overwhelming. “I never thought I would receive such an overwhelming appreciation. I feel I am lucky to receive so much love,” said the graduate from Delhi University.

Vaccines are working well against the Indian (delta) variant of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, according to a study on healthcare staff working at the Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore town.
By April 30, at the height of the second wave of the pandemic in India, about 84.8 percent of the medical school’s employees received a shot of the Astra Zeneca vaccine with a smaller number getting the Indian-made Covaxin.
The medical school, managed by the Protestant Church of South India, has more than 2,600 beds and 10,600 employees.
Some 679 (9.6%) of the 7,080 employees of the Vellore hospital who received their second dose became infected by the virus within 47 days of the second dose. This is 65% lower than for the unvaccinated.
In addition, those who contracted Covid-19 also required fewer hospitalizations (-77%), less use of oxygen tanks (-92%) and fewer intensive care admissions (-94%).
“The only staff member who died since the beginning of the pandemic had multiple co-morbidities and had not taken the vaccine,” noted the study, autho-red by Doctor Joy J Mammen, professor at the medical school’s Department of Transfusion Medicine.

The pandemic has created a demand for portable crematoriums in Kerala with many churches relying on it as an alternative to burying those who succumbed to Covid-19.
Covid victims’ families and relatives see portable crematoriums as a viable solution as the units can be used either inside the cemetery of churches or even outside.
“It is after we faced difficulties in disposing of bodies of our parishioners who died of Covid-19 that we started to think of making a portable crematorium,” said Fr Francis Areeckal, vicar of St Antony’s Church at Kizhakkambalam in Ernakulam district.
“We worked out the plan in consultation with an engineering contractor who is also a parishioner,” said Father Areeckal, who has claimed that they are willing to offer its services to “anybody cutting across barriers of caste and religion.”
“In case they need assistance for cremation, we have a team. They would volunteer their service,” the priest said. The portable crematorium they have made weighs 650 kg and can be transported in a pick-up van or a mini truck.