The camaraderie and bonding intrinsically linked with social life in rural pockets has become a thing of the past.

Social discrimination and stigma has taken the centrestage getting the better of the social milieu in post-Covid 19 pandemic health crisis in Odisha and the government’s frequent changes in quarantine rules contributes by way of confusion.

While the state grapples and seems to be at its wits end over handling of lakhs of migrant returnees, cases of uninformed arrivals, people pulling chain of Shramik Express trains and escaping pour in causing further panic among villagers. Initially when Coronavirus scare grabbed spotlight on March and lockdown was enforced, the severing of social ties amounted to maintaining social distance norm to stem the disease.

Now it leapfrogged to disturbing and unsettling social dimension, more so with migrant Odias making their way to their places of nativity. A migrant returnee is being seen with suspicion even after completing the mandatory quarantine period. Things are more troublesome for families of Covid patients with their houses being branded as prohibitory territory.

Two Covid patients from Golamunda block of Kalahandi district may have fully recovered from the disease for more than a month. But the families are reportedly stigmatized. So also are the members of a family in Rajkanika block of Kendrapara district, who are victims of social discrimination. A minor girl had tested positive of Covid-19. However she was fully cured later.

As the ground realities unfold, countless cases of discrimination because of Covid scare are pouring in from various parts of the state. Take the case of a woman, who returned from Punjab’s Ludhiana to her native Hirapur village under Paikamal block of Bargarh district.

The woman’s family is ostracized in the village. The woman has now self-isolated self at home. But the entire village has boycotted the family amid scare that she may be infected with the virus. Similar is the tale of a man who returned to Kechhodadar village in Paikamal block from far off Koraput district. The returnee and his family has faced social boycott as he shied away from institutional quarantine and stayed in home isolation.

There are a few reports of quarantined people disallowing the entry of newcomers into the temporary health centres. As the migrant returnees’ travel history from Covid hotspots of the country, the quarantined inmates are scared that they may pass on the disease to them. Many such instances have been reported in Ganjam district. Tales of social boycott of migrant returnees by the community members are also trickling in from Cuttack district’s Niali and Nischintakoili blocks.

A section of the returnees and their family in Pokharigaon and Erancha gram Panchayats are facing boycott despite the fact that they underwent the quarantine period. In a related development, inmates of several temporary health camps in Kedrapara, Jajpur, Jagatsighpur ad Cuttack districts have stepped up demand seeking their Covid test at the earliest.

“I have already undergone 12 day quarantine. My nasal swabs are yet to be collected. The authorities should conduct the test so that we could leave for home after testing Covid negative”, said a quarantined inmate, requesting not to be named, in Niali block of Cuttack district.