india

Updated: Apr 23, 2020 13:49 IST

A family in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district is allegedly facing social boycott over a coronavirus rumour for the past five days. The family of four has alleged that they are not even allowed to use water from village tube-wells or wells.

The incident came to light when a video of the kids crying in hunger went viral on social media. On Thursday, chief minister Hemant Soren took cognisance of the incident and asked Ramgarh deputy commissioner (DC) to take immediate action and provide relief to the family.

“My appeal to people is do not pay attention to rumours. In this epidemic situation, we can fight the coronavirus and rumour only with social support,” the CM tweeted.

The incident took place at Murudih village under Gola police station. Geeta Devi, the mother of two children, said, “I have been working in Didi Kitchen run under Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) and feeding the poor during this period of lockdown. Many families in the village were suffering due to lack of PDS ration, I helped them get ration.”

On April 18, when she was serving food to the poor through Didi kitchen, few villagers came and alleged that she was coronavirus positive.

“I asked them how? One of them alleged that my brother-in-law came from Chhattisgarh and he is suffering from Covid-19. I tried to convince them that nobody came from anywhere at my home. But, they did not allow me to serve food,” said Devi, whose husband Ishwar Kumar Mahto is a labourer.

The husband is presently jobless due to nationwide lockdown in place to check the spread of the coronavirus disease.

The next day, when Devi went to a nearby tube-well for water, villagers stopped her from drawing the water.

“No food was cooked that day for lack of water. In a bid to prove villagers wrong, all in the family went to Gola for coronavirus check up on April 19. The report came negative but the health officials asked us to remain in home quarantine for 14 days,” she said.

Despite the negative coronavirus report, the family, she alleges, was asked to leave the village.

“The next day on April 20, my LPG cylinder needed refilling, but the villagers did not allow it. They are not allowing us to even come out of the house for any necessity,” Devi said, adding, “I went to Gola police station on April 21”.

The police visited the village on Wednesday evening.

“The family was in deep crisis. We helped them to get water from the village tube well and convinced the villagers to not pay heed to rumours. If the family is tortured again, we will lodge a case against the villagers,” said Gola police station in-charge, Dhananjay Kumar.

Devi said, “I have filled all my containers with water. So, I did not go out to take water today (Thursday). But, I do not find any change in the behaviour of villagers. We are living in fear that we may be beaten, if we go outside.”

A section of villagers questioned as to why the family needed to be tested if they were not carrying the disease.

“The family went for a Covid-19 check up. If they did not have coronavirus, why did they go for the test?” said a villager who did not wish to be named.