Two newborn babies have died after hospitals refused to admit their Muslim mothers amid a surge in coronavirus-related Islamophobia in India.
In Jharkhand state, a Muslim woman miscarried after she was barred from receiving treatment in MGM Hospital in the city of Jamshedpur.
Rizwana Khatun, 30, had rushed to the hospital after she began bleeding. Accused of spreading coronavirus, she was also beaten and asked to clean up her own blood.
Earlier this month, a baby died in the Bharatpur district of Rajasthan after a government hospital refused to admit the Muslim mother.
Pregnant and bleeding, a 30-year-old Muslim woman suffered a miscarriage and gave birth to a stillborn after she was barred from receiving treatment in Jamshedpur’s MGM Hospital.
“I was abused on the lines of my religion and was asked to wipe the blood. I could not because I was shivering. I was beaten with slippers. I was shocked and rushed to a nursing home. There it was revealed that my child had died,” the grief-stricken mother, Rizwana Khatun, claimed in a letter that she penned to The Jharkhand Police, according to The Indian Express.
In a similar event earlier this month, a baby died after a doctor at a government hospital in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur reportedly refused to admit a Muslim mother.
A number of smear campaigns have emerged against Muslims across India since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Pro-government channels broadcasted fake videos claiming Muslims are spitting on people in order to spread the disease.
Many Muslims feel demonized and unfairly blamed for spreading the disease after a cluster emerged at a gathering of Muslim missionaries in New Delhi last month.
Source: Telegraph
