A report by Reuters revealed that in parts of India, there was a downward trend in the number of deaths caused by other and natural causes. This report was compared to last year’s figures and after citing evidence from funeral services, crematoriums and hospitals, it was discovered that the number of non-Covid-19 related deaths have fallen since March 25th 2020.
Mumbai which has a population of 1.2 crore people, saw an overall decrease in deaths by almost 21% this year. In 2019, Mumbai had 7155 deaths and the number in 2020 is 5669.
Ahmedabad on the other hand recorded a 67% decline in its numbers in the same period with a drop from 4500 to 1500. Other cities like Bhubaneswar and Surat have also reported decreases in deaths.
Why is this happening? One of the major reasons of death in India is attributed to road and train accidents. India stands on top globally in the number of road accidents. It is believed that 12 people in India die every hour in a road accident according to the 2018 figures.
The lockdown has resulted in minimum to no traffic and hence, has led to a massive cut down on the possibility of road accidents occurring.
It is safe to project that 2020 will see a 15% decline in the number of road accidents. The crematorium near the Ganga river in Uttar Pradesh said that earlier, it would get at least 10 accident related bodies every day. Now, they are only getting bodies of people who have died of natural causes.
This trend comes in as a surprise considering that the deaths in some other countries have indeed risen but in India, the opposite seems to be happening. Although this trend has been observed, there is still speculation around whether this conclusion has been made after a holistic look at the data since the overall data in India is not available.
