Man ostracised after Covid-19 screening, lives on a hillock for seven days

shanmughasundaram.j @timesgroup.com

Chennai: 

For the last one week, 28-year-old Shamim Ali has spent days and nights on a hillock on the outskirts of his village, Kannagapattu in Thiruporur. A guest worker from Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj district, he had taken up loading and unloading work at the Koyambedu market and was taken for Covid-19 screening in the first week of May. As he was not infected, he was advised home quarantine, and that was when reality set in. His villagers refused to allow him to stay at home forcing him to spend seven days on the village outskirts amidst trees and shrubs. 

Ali had made MGR Nagar in Kannagapattu his home for four years after arriving in the state in search of a job. A father of four children, he and his family was residing in a single-room house with asbestos roofing. He was working in a papermart until the nation-wide lockdown to prevent Covid-19 spread rendered him jobless. As a result, he found his way to the Koyambedu market to load and unload vegetables for a few days. 

However, the emergence of a Covid-19 cluster with Koyambedu market at the epicentre not only left him without a job a second time, but also led to his ostracisation. “Officials traced me along with three others from the same locality as we worked in the market. We were screened and advised to stay at home. When I returned, the locals feared that I might be carrying the virus and could spread the infection. They told me to stay away from the village,” Ali said. 

With no place to go, Ali took shelter near a temple on a hillock in the vicinity. The villagers did not stop with this. They dissuaded his wife from visiting him. His younger brother, Khalil Ali, who is living with his family in the same vicinity, dropped food for him a few meters away from the place he stayed from May 10 to the morning of May 16.

Finding it difficult, Ali got in touch with his friend, Chand Ali, to help him get back to his family, “I, with the help of a volunteer, Rahul, contacted revenue officials and sought help for Shamim Ali,” Chand Ali said.

Revenue Inspector of Tiruporur N Pushpa Rani along with police officials reached the village on Saturday morning. “We spoke to the villagers and tried to ward off their fears. We convinced them to allow him to stay at his home. Later, he returned home,” she said. 

“It was very difficult for me to stay away from my children. I missed them a lot, and I was very happy to get back to them,” Ali said. Despite the government trying to create awareness among the public on Covid-19, people like Ali continue to face social stigma in the state./eom/shan/