Aurangabad (Maharashtra): In a shocking incident of discrimination against people at the forefront of fighting COVID-19, a nurse in Auranganad was threatened by the locals to leave the area as she treats corona positive patients and the locals fear that she may be a possible carrier of the virus. Shilpa Hiwale, who lives in Chikalthana area, works at the district hospital. The attacker threatened Shilpa and said that because of her the whole area can get infected.
At around one o'clock on 11th May night, some people came to Shilpa's home on the pretext of asking for water, however, as soon as she opened the window of the kitchen, people outside started abusing her and threatened her of dire consequences. Shilpa also alleged that she was beaten with sticks by some people. Later on she also filed a complaint with the CIDCO MIDC Police Station.
In Aurangabad, the number of Corona positive patients are increasing with each every passing day. Many areas have been sealed by locals to prevent people from outside into entering that area. People who go for work also take every possible precaution to keep the infection at bay.
However, some doctors and other staff working at hospitals treating corona positive patients face a number of difficulties as locals treat them as untouchable sometimes and even force them to leave the locality.
For the past few days, Shilpa is facing the similar kind of problem as some locals threatened her not to enter her locality because she works at a hospital that treats Corona patients.
While Hiwale lodged a complaint with the CIDCO MIDC police, some people are pressurizing her to withdraw the complaint.
"I don’t get accommodation from the hospital and also my son is sick, he has only one kidney. I can't leave him alone because of these things. Despite such challenges, local are now harassing us like this", said Shilpa. Is it a crime to serve Corona patients? She also questioned.
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