Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement on Saturday that the data published in a media report, related to the details of policies and claims settled by Life Insurance Corporation do not relate to Covid-19 deaths. The statement said that the report is biased and speculative and just does not hold any relevance with respect to Covid-19 deaths.
A section of the media had reported that in the first half of 2021-22, the sudden jump in death claims received by Life Insurance Corporation was because of the Covid-19 mortalities. Media reports had also claimed that in the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, mortalities were gravely underreported.
As per the IPO related papers filed by the Life Insurance Corporation, the death claims in the first half of 2021-22 amounted to Rs 21,325 crore, which is 91 per cent of the death claims of the entire 2020-21 period which amounted to Rs 23,483 crore.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that the claims settled by Life Insurance Corporation were related to Life insurance policies taken by policyholders for deaths pertaining to all causes. It further said that the biased report by the media reveals a lack of understanding of how the Covid-19 deaths in India are accumulated and published daily in the public domain ever since the beginning of the pandemic.
Covid-19 reporting system in place
The statement further clarified that India has a very transparent and efficient system of reporting deaths related to Covid-19 infections, from the Gram Panchayat to the District and the State level. The death reporting and monitoring have been carried out with complete transparency. To report the fatalities in an efficient and transparent manner, the Government has adopted a globally recognized standard to classify Covid related deaths. In the process adopted, the states independently report to the central government their death cases caused due to Covid-19 and the Central Government then compiles the comprehensive report.
The Central Government pressurized the states to regularly update their mortality figures so as to highlight the efforts of Public Health response to COVID-19 by giving a true picture of the situation.
From the beginning of the pandemic, the Union Government is obligated to provide transparent and accountable public health response under the whole of society and the whole of Government approach. Transparent reporting of deaths due to COVID-19 is one of the main pillars of the graded approach to COVID-19 management in India and the Union Health Ministry has also regularly emphasized the need for a robust reporting mechanism for monitoring district wise cases and deaths on a daily basis.
The statement further added that in addition to the above, the central government has arranged an added incentive in the country to facilitate the reporting of Covid-19 deaths as it entitles one to financial remuneration which makes the chances of underreporting very scarce.
Therefore, jumping to any conclusion with respect to underreporting of fatalities is nothing more than mere speculation and conjecture, the statement further said.
The statement also highlighted that the registration of deaths in the country has legal backing and that the registration is processed under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBD Act, 1969) by administrators that are appointed by state governments.
