An old video of a child pushing a stretcher inside a hospital has been revived amid the spike in COVID cases to condemn the central government's handling of the shortage of beds and oxygen across the country.
The video from Deoria District Hospital in Uttar Pradesh dates back to July 2020. The child and his mother were forced to push the stretcher of their injured grandfather, as the ward boy had sought money for the same.
CLAIM
The video was shared by Twitter user Afzal Hussain, who identifies himself as the district coordinator of Indian Youth Congress in Bihar.
The video had garnered over 1,000 views at the time of writing this article, and was shared with the caption, "What would make a more self-reliant India? This is enough," along with hashtags, 'COVID19', 'coronavirus' and 'indianeedoxygen'.
You can view an archived version here.
(Photo: Twitter/Screenshot)
He also shared the video on Facebook, garnering over 10,000 views.
Director Avinash Das of Netflix's SHE-fame also shared the video with the caption, "आत्मनिर्भर भारत की यह तस्वीर देख कर कलेजा मुंह को आ जाता है। इन दृश्यों के बीच कोई बताये कि पॉज़िटिविटी कैसे क़ायम रखी जाए?"
(Translation: "Seeing this picture of self-reliant India is heart-breaking. Someone explain how to keep positivity amid such scenes?")
The video had garnered over 5,200 views and an archived version of it, can be viewed here.
Archived versions of similar claims on Twitter and Facebook can be viewed here, here and here.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
A reverse image search led us to a tweet (dated July 2020) by Congress leader from Chattisgarh, PL Punia.
Punia mentioned that the said video is from Uttar Pradesh.
Further, a PTI report on The Times of India, dated 20 July 2020, states a ward boy from the Deoria district hospital was removed for allegedly demanding Rs 30 for pushing the stretchers of patients.
Reports carried by News18 and AajTak mentioned that Deoria District Magistrate Amit Kishore had visited the hospital to meet the family members of Chedi Yadav, the patient in the viral video. A probe set up under sadar SDM and the assistant chief medical officer of the hospital found the ward boy as the ‘culprit.’
However, it must be noted that it is true that the healthcare system in India is currently overwhelmed with the rising number of COVID cases. Hospital are turning away patients due to shortage of medical oxygen and beds. But this particular video is not recent. The Quint had earlier debunked this video in November 2020. You can read our fact-check here.
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