Assaults have been reported across the country as people panic about catching the disease from medical workers or being stigmatized for having contracted it themselves.
In the southern city of Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), health workers were attacked as they went door to door checking people for symptoms. In the central city of Bhopal, doctors returning from an emergency shift were stopped by the police, accused of spreading the virus, and beaten with batons. And in New Delhi, one doctor was assaulted by a shopper at a local fruit market, while neighbors of one of her colleagues attempted to force the woman from her apartment building.
[...]
The backlash comes from people across the country’s diverse social classes, religions, language groups and geographies, making it harder to isolate one explanation for why the trend is more widespread and intense in India.
But there are some contributing factors. Trust in the health-care system was already low, while misinformation is ubiquitous on social media. And an unprecedented nationwide lockdown, given with just four hours’ notice, has intensified the hysteria.
At the same time, weeks of media coverage of how the virus spread at an Islamic religious organization in Delhi has stoked sectarian tensions that were already running high, while the virus has also played into deep fears of social ostracism in a country where for centuries some castes were classified as untouchables.
From the article:
[...]