As cases of COVID-19 are increasing in South Asia, one of the world’s poorest and most populous regions, Amnesty International called on governments “to put human rights at the heart of their responses” and to intensify efforts to protect marginalised and vulnerable groups at higher risk, including daily wage earners, people displaced by conflict, health workers and prisoners.

The COVID-19 pandemic is poised to break into thousands of cases in South Asia as more governments across the region imposed strict lockdowns and curfews amid fears the virus will strike densely populated areas, overwhelming woefully inadequate healthcare facilities and devastating livelihoods across a region where more than 600 million people already live in poverty, the human rights body said.

“As the number of COVID-19 cases in South Asia soars, the region’s leaders must pay special attention to the most vulnerable and marginalized in this crisis. They need to protect the workers for whom staying at home means losing their livelihoods, people who lost their homes in conflicts and now languish in overcrowded camps, prisoners squeezed into cells with several others, and, not least, the valiant doctors and nurses who have never had the resources they need and are now putting their own health at risk to save others,” said Biraj Patnaik, South Asia Director at Amnesty International.

“States have a responsibility to provide information about COVID-19 that is accurate and evidence-based, that reaches people in languages they understand through mediums they can easily access. At the same time, there must be a concerted effort to counter misinformation about the virus that could harm people and to protect marginalized communities from stigmatization,” said Patnaik.

Authorities across South Asia have a responsibility towards not just their own citizens, but all individuals within their jurisdictions – including refugees and asylum-seekers.

South Asia has one of the highest populations of refugees in the world, including three million registered and unregistered Afghan refugees in Pakistan and more than a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

“For people displaced by conflict, social distancing is not an option, health care is not easily available, and basic necessities are a daily struggle. States have an obligation to not just ensure they are included in the response to the COVID-19 crisis but to address their particular needs,” Patnaik added.

The vast majority of workers in South Asia earn their living in the informal economy, often depending on daily wages.

According to the International Labour Organization, the informal sector “accounts for 80 percent of total employment” in South Asia.

They include street vendors, sanitation workers, drivers, construction workers, cleaners, tea plantation workers, fisherfolk, porters, cooks, and domestic workers, many of whom are internal migrant workers and live far away from their families.

“No one should be forced to make the pernicious choice between starvation and infection. South Asia’s economies depend on the daily toil of workers who are forced to seek their living in insecure and often inadequate working conditions. States must protect their livelihoods as best as they can during this crisis. In the long term, international solidarity will be needed for a recovery. This is a global pandemic and it needs a global solution,” said Patnaik further said.

Every one of South Asia’s eight countries has one of the lowest numbers of physicians per capita, according to the World Bank. It ranges from 0.3 physicians per 1,000 people (Afghanistan) to just one physician per 1,000 people (Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). At the best of times, there are too few healthcare workers with too few resources.

“Frontline health workers are the heroes we depend on in this crisis. They are putting the health of others first at a risk to their own. The very least they can expect is to be given the protective equipment they need. States have an obligation to ensure they are protected – including by providing appropriate training and psychosocial support, for them and their families,” said Biraj Patnaik.

Highlighting the problems faced by the prisoners’ in this region, Patnaik said, “South Asia’s prisons are a blight on the region’s conscience. They are notoriously overcrowded, violent, unsanitary and lacking health care, which places inmates at high risk of infection.

“Efforts should be made to urgently reduce overcrowding, including by considering release for older detainees and those who may qualify for early parole and who no longer pose a threat to public safety. There should also be a presumption of release for people charged with a criminal offence who are awaiting trial. Those who will not be released must be given the same standards of medical care available to everyone else in the country, including transfers to medical facilities if they require specialised care.”