Cold Weather Claims Lives of 1,000 Homeless People Across South Asia

January 14, 2003
By Phil Reeves Asia Correspondent

An estimated 1,000 people have died in South Asia in the past month during a cold snap that saw temperatures stay above freezing but prove too harsh for the homeless.

Cold weather across northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal has claimed a daily average of two dozen lives, mostly the elderly and children living on the streets.

A region that is more accustomed to extreme heat is running up a winter death toll comparable with that of Russia, where hundreds have died this winter in a ferocious cold spell that saw temperatures of minus 37C in Moscow.

Temperatures of between 6C and 3.3C are proving fatal for South Asia's army of intensely poor and malnourished people, who live in the open air or under shacks built from scrap, with no source of electricity or fuel for fires and inadequate clothing.

More than half of the deaths – roughly estimated by officials at almost 1,000 in about a month – have been in Bangladesh.

According to the country's meteorological centre, temperatures have fallen to 3C, driven down by a thick fog that has blocked out the sun.

On Sunday alone, 50 people – mainly elderly women and children – were reported dead in Bangladesh. Another 47 are said to have died yesterday. India has also been hard hit. In its most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, 21 people died in the past two days, pushing up the number of deaths to 343. "Most of the people who died were pavement dwellers who sleep under trees or under the open skies. Often, they cannot afford any woollens," an official said.

South Asia's plight has attracted little international attention, not least because the winter – not to mention other natural disasters such as floods and cyclones – claims countless lives every year.

But this year aid agencies appear to be scrambling to hand out aid and the governments involved have done little – largely because the cold has lasted weeks longer than expected. Generally, sharp winter spells in the region are brief. Meteorologists are predicting more cold weather at the end of the week, which is sure to mean more deaths.

"It's really looking very grim," said Tony Maryon, of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Bangladesh, which has been handing out blankets. "The local support has been tremendous but there has been very little external support. If the cold spell continues, we will have to launch an appeal."
 
© 2002 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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