A catastrophic second wave of COVID-19 has overwhelmed India’s already creaky health infrastructure, with hospitals running out of beds and oxygen, while critical drugs are being sold on a thriving black market.
Social media platforms have been flooded with SOS messages from people pleading for oxygen cylinders and hospital admissions as authorities struggled to cope with the scale of the crisis.
Amid the shortage, many places of worship, including mosques and gurdwaras, across India have come forward to help needy patients and a number of them have been turned into care centres for COVID patients.
Mufti Arif Falahi, head of a seminary in the western city of Baroda, has taken on a different job over the past weeks: saving lives. A part of Falahi’s seminary in the western state of Gujarat, home to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been turned into a makeshift care centre for COVID patients.
“Every day, we have to turn away 50-60 people because we can only accommodate 142 with oxygen support,” Falahi told Al Jazeera over the phone.
On May 10, India recorded 3,754 deaths, a slight dip after two consecutive days of more than 4,000 deaths. Daily infections stood at more than 360,000.

As Covid-19 continues to claim thousands of lives daily in India, Catholic leaders have called on the federal government to deploy the military to deal with the crisis before it worsens.
“The second wave of Covid-19 is surely a national calamity and the entire nation is struggling as thousands are dying and hundreds of thousands are getting infected daily,” said Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, former secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
“The federal government should consider deploying military personnel to assist the civil administration to effectively deal with this alarming situation of people living in fear,” he told UCA News on April 27.
Since mid-April, India has been reporting more than 300,000 new Covid-19 cases and 2,000 deaths daily.
Several states and cities have resorted to lockdowns and night curfews and several other restrictions on socio-religious gatherings to break the chain of the pandemic’s spread.

A prominent group of Indian-American doctors on May 7 urged the US government to release at least 30 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to India to help meet its “acute and severe” shortage in the country, which is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19 in the world.
The American Association of Physicians of Indian-Origin (AAPI), the largest representative body of Indian-American doctors in the United States, has also written letters to all the 100 senators, seeking their support in increased assistance to India.
AAPI said it has been working with the White House officials and urging the administration the importance and the need to send the much-needed vaccines to India to prevent and contain the spread of the virus.
At present, India is experiencing acute and severe shortages of the COVID-19 vaccines. AstraZeneca is releasing 60 million vaccines after due FDA approval this month. We urge the US government to release at least 30 million doses of the vaccine to India, said Dr. Sampat Shivangi, member National Advisory Council, SAMHSA, Center for National Mental Health Services, and currently serving as AAPI’s Legislative Wing chairman.
While providing all possible help and support that is essential at this critical period, AAPI recognises that in the long term, vaccination is still the best therapy and hope, he said.

Seven Catholic priests have died of Covid-19 in the space of four days in India’s Gujarat state, one of the worst-hit areas where government and private hospitals are adding more beds as infections spiral out of control.
In one day, April 19, Gujarat reported as many as 7,107 fresh corona virus cases and 177 deaths. The death toll has reached 5,494 since the pandemic hit the western state last year.
Father Pascal Jacob Ninama of Baroda Diocese is the latest victim. The 56-year-old died on the morning of April 20. Father Paulraj Napoleon of the same diocese died of the virus on April 17.
The other priests to have died in Gujarat were three Jesuits — Fathers Jerry Sequeira, Jesuraj Arputham and Erwin Lazarado — Carmelites of Mary Immaculate Father John Fisher and Divine Word Father Francis Rayyappan.
“All seven of them died of Covid-19 between April 16 and 20,” said Father Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit social activist based in Ahmedabad, the state’s largest city.
“The situation here is very bad and beyond imagination. You can see long queues in front of hospitals to get their sick admitted. You can also see lines of dead bodies waiting to be cremated,” he told UCA News
The government “is in denial mode” and “not sharing the real picture,” the priest said, sharing the common fear that the state’s healthcare facilities have collapsed, unable even to provide oxygen to care for the sick.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of his home state Gujarat for fourteen years until 2014. While heading the state government, Modi touted Gujarat as a role model of development in the country.
In the run-up to general elections in 2014, Modi promised to implement the Gujarat model across India to turn it into a prosperous nation.
Modi’s critics claim the state’s inability to deal with Covid-19 is proof that the so-called Gujarat model of development was a media creation. “The Gujarat model is nothing but media publicity. The state lacks basic facilities to take care of the poor and the middle class,” Father Prakash said.  “It is true some people under Modi became rich and super-rich, but that does not mean that all the people of Gujarat have become wealthy.”

The Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh got its first Catholic nun when Sister Dulley Yakang made her First religious profession as the member of the Congregation of the Mother Carmel.
She took the vows April 17 at a ceremony in Mount Carmel Parish, Dimapur, the commercial capital of the northeastern Indian state.
“It is indeed a matter of pride for all of our Apatani community that one of our own became a religious sister,” said Nani Yase Teresa, the president of Apatani Catholic Women Association of Itangar diocese. “I used to pray for her daily during my family prayers and I pray that many more youth from Arunachal Pradesh become fathers and sisters like Sister Yakang” she added.
Sister Yakang is the daughter of Dulley Buda and Dulley Adii of Hapoli parish. She is the third among the nine siblings and started her formation for religious life after completing her bachelor degree.
She made her religious profession together with four others in the presence of their provincial Sister Emilin and Bishop James Thoppil of Kohima.
Newly professed CMC nunsCongratulating Sister Yakang, Bishop John Thomas of Itanagar said, “It is a matter of joy for the young Church in Arunachal Pradesh to get a vocation to religious life. We are very proud of her and we wish her happy and fruitful religious life.”
Sister Yakang is the tenth religious nun of indigenous origin from Itanagar diocese.
“I hope she will be a source of inspiration for many more young people to come forward to offer their lives in the service of the people,” said Bishop Thomas.

With the death of Archbishop Lucan Sirkar on April 18, the Church in Bengal lost a stalwart leader whose major concern was to build local leadership with local resources.
Archbishop Lucas succeeded Archbishop Henry D’Souza on April 14, 2000, and remained Archbishop until Feb 23, 2012.
During those 12 years his sincere efforts were to build local leadership, promoting local vocations for future mission. His efforts resulted in many local vocations from Santhal, Adivasis communities. Vocations came also from Odisha and Bengal states.
Many priests who serve the archdiocese now are basically from local grassroots. That’s certainly Archbishop Sirkar’s great contribution to the Church.
I am indebted to him for entrusting me with important offices in the archdiocese.
He appointed me the dean of Howrah-Hooghly and Kolkata city Deanery. I was appointed editor of The Herald, the dio-cesan weekly. He also encourag-ed me to promote Bangla Herald. Besides being pro vicar of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary since May 1, 2002, I was one of the archdiocesan consulters and a member of the Arch-diocesan Finance Committee.

Devotees take holy dips in the river Ganges during Shahi snan or a Royal bath at Kumbh mela, in Haridwar in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, Monday, April 12, 2021. As states across India are declaring some version of a lockdown to battle rising Covid cases as part of a nation- wide second-wave, thousands of pilgrims are gathering on the banks of the river Ganga for the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela. The faithful believe that a dip in the waters of the Ganga will absolve them of their sins and deliver them from the cycle of birth and death.
Some Catholic leaders are accusing the government of India of a double standard for allowing millions of pilgrims to participate in a large Hindu ceremony, while strictly imposing COVID-19 rules on the worship of religious minorities.
The Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, is one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. The faithful congregate in the northern city of Haridwar and take a dip in the waters of the Ganges, which they believe will absolve them of their sins and deliver them from the cycle of birth and death. The Kumbh Mela, which runs through April, comes during India’s worst surge in new infections since the pandemic began, with a seven-day rolling average of more than 130,000 new cases per day. Hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with patients, and experts worry the worst is yet to come.

Catholic leaders have urged their people across India to strictly follow Covid-19 restrictions as they dedicated a day of prayer to contain the infection spreading like wildfire.
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India president Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai has written to bishops asking them to hold a day of prayer and fast on May 7 seeking divine intervention to save the country from the spreading pandemic.
“We are recording around 300,000 new cases of corona-virus every single day. The second wave has hit us like a tsunami and we are yet to reach the peak,” his April 22 letter said. “Added to this is the apparent lack of planning, resulting in a shortage of hospital beds, anti-viral drugs, oxygen and vaccines. It could get worse before it gets better.”
Cardinal Gracias urged people to follow Covid-19 protocols such as wearing masks, main-taining physical distancing and sanitizing hands as well as adhering to restrictions and curfews imposed to break the chain of infections.
The prelate also wants every-one to get vaccinated against the viral disease.

The Supreme Court on April 9 said people are free to choose their own religion, even as it lashed out at a “very, very harmful kind” of “public interest” petition claiming there is mass religious conversion happening “by hook or by crook” across the country.
Instead, a Bench led by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman said people have a right under the Constitution to profess, practice and propagate religion.
“Why should a person above 18 years not choose his religion? What kind of a writ petition is this? We will impose heavy costs on you… Withdraw it or argue and risk the consequences,” Justice Nariman asked petitioner – advocate Ashwini Kumar Upa-dhyay.
Justice Nariman reminded Upadhyay of the fundamental right under Article 25 of the Constitution to freely profess, practice and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and health. “Why do you think there is the word ‘propagate’?’” Justice Nariman asked the petitioner.
Religious conversion is being done through a “carrot-and-stick” approach, Upadhyay had claimed in his petition.
Justice Nariman said every person is the final judge of their own choice of religion or who their life partner should be. Courts cannot sit in judgment of a person’s choice of religion or life partner.
Religious faith is a part of the fundamental right to privacy. Justice Nariman reminded Upadhyay of the Constitution Bench judgment which upheld inviolability of the right to privacy, equating it with the rights to life, of dignity and liberty.
Upadhyay’s petition was dismissed as withdrawn. His plea to approach the Law Commission or the High Court with the plea was not expressly allowed by the Bench.
The petition alleged that the court should direct the federal and the state governments to control black magic, superstition and religious conversion being done through threats, intimidation or bribes.
“There is not even one district which is free of black magic, superstition and religious conversion… Incidents are reported every week throughout the country where conversion is done by intimidating, threatening, luring through gifts and monetary benefits,” the petition had alleged.
Further, the petition said the federal and state governments were obligated under Article 46 to protect the SC/ST community from social injustice and other forms of exploitation.

The diocese of Miao marked the World Health Day with the inauguration of a modern dental care unit at the only Catholic hospital in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal.
“Proper health care is big concern in Arunachal Pradesh, particularly in Changlang district,” said Somlung Mossang, who represents the Borduma-Diyun constituency in the state legislative assembly.
Inaugurating the clinic in Krick and Bourry Memorial Hospital at Injan in Changalang district on April 7, he said people of Arunachal Pradesh often are compelled to travel to neighbouring Assam for their basic medical treatments. “Due to the long journey undertaken many have lost their lives on the way to the hospital. It also results in huge expense of money,” he added.
The dental care wing will cater to agrarian people of nearby areas such as Miao, Jairampur, Nampong, Manmao, Bordumsa, Diyun, Nampahi, Balinong and Kharsang. They can now avail hassle-free and affordable round the clock dental treatment, saving both money and time, Mossang said.
The diocese of Miao set up the hospital in 2016 as a response to the people’s request for a better health care facility within Arunachal Pradesh.
Speaking on the occasion, Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao congratulated the doctors and the Sacred Heart Sisters of Pala province in Kerala and the nurses for their dedicated healthcare service to the people. Echoing the theme of World Health Day 2021, the Salesian prelate said, the dental care unit will now help the hospital serve the people and build a ‘fairer and healthier world.’