Indian Americans Despair as COVID-19 Ravages South Asian Nation

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - Priyanka Jhala lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband, daughter and two dogs. She moved to the United States from India in 2013, but her mother, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles still live in Kolkata and New Delhi.

Like so many of the more than 4 million people of Indian ancestry who now make the United States home, Jhala is watching the coronavirus ravage her native country with horror, helplessness and anger. “My friends in India tell me walking out of your house feels like walking into a death trap,” she told VOA. “A family member told me you don’t know if the person you’re talking to on the phone today will be OK tomorrow. Everyone sounds so down, defeated and scared.” Jhala said she’s haunted by accounts of parking lots and parks turned into makeshift crematoriums, and people cutting down trees for wood to burn dead bodies.