PUNE, India — Amanjit Singh’s father, a family doctor, was ordered to reopen his clinic as early cases of COVID-19 were spreading in Mumbai. Within days, his father — gasping for oxygen at home — was dead. Two days later, so was his mother.
Left to fend for himself, the 17-year-old Singh set out to collect the compensation the government promised family members of health workers killed by COVID-19. For nine months, he had to navigate the depths of Indian bureaucracy — sidestepping lockdowns, winning police approval to visit government offices and the hospital — to obtain his father’s death certificate proving he fell victim to the coronavirus.
But in the end, it didn’t matter. Singh was denied the $67,000 package because his father was dismissed as a private practitioner, not someone on the front lines of the pandemic.
