Statement on Vaccines Roll-out

Statement on Vaccines Roll-out

click here to read the English pdf of the AIPSN-Statement-Vaccine-Rollout-15Jan2021

Click here to read Hindi pdf of AIPSN-Statement-Vaccine-Rollout-15Jan2021

AIPSN Statement on Vaccines Roll-out

15 Jan 2021

 

All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) is shocked that, as part of the mass vaccinations in India beginning on 16 January 2021 with inoculation of health workers, the Central Government is distributing 56 lakh doses of Bharat Biotech-ICMR’s Covaxin, along with 110 lakh doses of Serum Institute of India-Oxford Astra Zeneca’s Covishield. This is in open defiance of the conditions imposed by the Central Drugs Standards Control Organization (CDSCO) while granting emergency approval for Covaxin. CDSCO and its Subject Expert Committee (SEC) had clearly differentiated between Covishield and Covaxin. Whereas both vaccines were approved for “restricted use in emergency situations,” Covaxin was given conditional approval, after apparent overnight arm-twisting of the SEC, only in clinical trial mode (emphasis added).”

56 lakh doses, i.e. inoculation of 28 lakh persons, cannot be considered a “trial” by any stretch of the imagination, especially when Phase-3 clinical trials for Covaxin are already underway involving around 26,000 volunteers. Clearly, the Government has placed Covaxin and Covishield on similar footing, other than total numbers as of now. Any “trial mode” vaccination should involve special monitoring, follow-up and institutional arrangements. The ethical and scientific quality of the ‘trials’ cannot be disregarded. There is no information yet available in the public domain if the Government has communicated any special protocols for Covaxin inoculation. Most importantly, clinical trials should require informed consent or refusal by Covaxin recipients, after being made fully aware of conditions imposed by the CDSCO and the absence of Phase-III efficacy data.

In contrast, Secretary, Union Health Ministry stated in a press conference that recipients would have no right to choose between the two vaccines, making it clear that the Central Government is intent on shoving Covaxin down the throats of State Governments and into the arms of innocent recipients, in this first round the health workers and “Covid heroes” regardless of the CDSCO conditions.

Government has only itself to blame if public suspicion about Covaxin and vaccine skepticism increases further due to its own complete opacity in rolling out  Covaxin, with no information on any of the questions raised here. Unfortunately, the CDSCO and the Union Health Ministry, have subverted the scientific criteria regarding the regulation of vaccines including their own guidelines for emergency use. This would compromise both people’s interests and the credibility of Indian pharma internationally. Bharat Biotech CEO’s unseemly attack on people who have criticized the government’s clearance on emergency use of its vaccine and attacking other vaccines does not add any credibility to its vaccine.

 

AIPSN  urges: 

  • The Union Government issue special protocols for Covaxin administration in “clinical trial mode,” including obtaining informed consent or refusal of recipients and ensuring compliance with all CDSCO/SEC approval conditions; 
  • CDSCO and ICMR to ensure that all clinical trials conform to necessary ethical, scientific and technical standards; 
  • All State Governments take a hard decision on whether to deploy Covaxin widely, or whether to strictly conform to CDSCO/SEC conditions of limited “trial mode” deployment; 

 

 

For clarifications contact:

T.Sundararaman 99874388253 D. Raghunandan 9810098621 S. Krishnaswamy 9442158638

 

On Hasty Regulatory Approvals in India for Covid-19 Vaccines

click here for pdf of English version AIPSNStatement-VaccineApprovals-6Jan2021

On Hasty Regulatory Approvals in India for Covid-19 Vaccines

6 Jan 2021

India’s regulatory authority for medical products, the Central Drug Standards Control Organization (CDSCO), gave  “restricted emergency approval” on 2nd January 2020 for two Covid-19 Vaccines, namely Serum Institute of India (SII)’s “Covishield” being manufactured in India under technology transfer from Oxford University-Astra Zeneca, and the indigenous “Covaxin” developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR/National Institute of Virology.

AIPSN salutes the efforts of Indian scientists, research institutions and vaccine manufacturers in bringing to the forefront indigenous vaccines like Covaxin in less than a year, with some other candidates just a few months behind. As and when these vaccines meet the threshold requirements for at least 50% efficacy, AIPSN will join other citizens in hailing this triumph and India’s contribution to the global battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tragically, the Government and CDSCO have together seriously damaged these hopes, and also undermined confidence in Covaxin and other vaccines against Covid-19, in particular concerning Covaxin, due to lack of evidence and unsatisfactory scientific basis, non-transparency and concerns around possible political pressure.

SII’s Covishield was approved on the basis of Phase-III clinical trials data from Brazil and the UK, and the approval granted by the UK’s Medical & Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) based on 70.4% efficacy revealed by the related published data despite some remaining grey areas relating to varying dosages. CDSCO approval for SII’s Covishield could have awaited results from on-going Phase-III trials and bridge studies in India to demonstrate efficacy and bio-equivalence.  However, given the UK approval the approval by CDSCO, although not ideal, may be understandable. Questions still remain, however, about the Health Ministry’s announcement of an extended gap of up to 12 weeks between the first and second doses, whereas the SEC is understood to have recommended the original protocol of 28-days.

The approval for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin raises more serious questions. The SEC had called for additional data from Phase-III trials, but appears to have been pressured overnight into reconsidering its decision and giving approval the next day, albeit hedged in by many conditions. CDSCO’s Statement shows that the approval is based only on Phase-I and Phase-II data on safety and immune response, but without any efficacy data from Phase-III trials. Top-ranking officials of the Government and ICMR have been strenuously defending this decision by stressing safety and arguing, without any evidence, that the design of Covaxin might make it more effective against the new UK mutation.  The opinion of ICMR, a co-developer of Covaxin, reflects possible bias and a conflict of interest, besides adding to perceptions of pressure on the regulator.

The serious doubts of the SEC on Covaxin are reflected in the CDSCO’s statement saying SII’s Covishield is approved “for restricted use in emergency situation subject to certain regulatory conditions” whereas, in contrast, approval for Bharat Biotech-ICMR’s Covaxin is given with numerous conditions such as “restricted use in emergency situation in public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, to have more options for vaccinations, especially in case of infection by mutant strains (emphasis added).”

True to form, the Government is steamrolling the decision, and attacking all critics, including many leading Indian scientists, as opponents of Indian science who should instead be upholding “national pride” over the indigenously developed vaccine. This achievement will indeed be hailed as a major Indian scientific achievement once efficacy data are released but, by this hasty approval without evidence, the Government has shot itself in the foot. Whatever prestige India may gain abroad for an indigenously-developed vaccine will be outweighed by the damage caused to the credibility of Covaxin in particular, and of Indian science, research and regulatory institutions.

 

In light of the above, the AIPSN calls for:

  1. Re-consideration of approval for Covaxin till efficacy data is available or, at least, strict adherence to conditions specified in the CDSCO order implying no roll-out of Covaxin for mass vaccination. 
  2. Phase-III efficacy trials for both vaccines continue without extraneous pressure and the data published at the earliest
  3. No vaccine or Covid-19 related drug be released for commercial use in the private sector until regular approval as per protocols (as distinct from emergency use authorization) are obtained.

For clarifications contact:

Sundararaman 99874388253 D. Raghunandan 9810098621 S.Krishnaswamy 9442158638

Rajamanickam, General Secretary, AIPSN gsaipsn@gmail.com, 9442915101 @gsaipsn

 

AIPSN statement on Vaccines and IPR waiver: India-South Africa Proposal for TRIPS Waiver – Putting People before Profit

click here for pdf of AIPSN-statement-on-Vaccines-and-IPR

AIPSN statement on Vaccines and IPR waiver

India-South Africa Proposal for TRIPS Waiver – Putting People before Profit

As Covid-19 pandemic continues to keep its grip on the globe, countries are facing severe shortages in medical supplies and treatments, with intellectual property rights hindering the timely provisioning of affordable medical products. To address this, India and South Africa have put in a proposal at the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), demanding a temporary waiver of certain TRIPS obligations on copyrights and related rights, industrial designs, patents, and the protection of undisclosed information in relation to the prevention, containment or treatment of Covid-19.

Most of the least developed and developing countries have supported these proposal in the TRIPS council, arguing for equitable and affordable access to medicines and medical products at least in these times of widespread catastrophe. The proposal has also got support from the World Health Organisation (WHO). However, it has been opposed by developed countries such as the US, the UK, Japan and even Brazil, on the grounds that such a move would hinder innovation and that there is no indication of intellectual property rights (IPRs) being a barrier to accessing Covid-19 related medicines and technologies.

Nothing can be farther from the truth! Over the last few months, countries have faced IP barriers in drugs, masks, ventilator valves and reagents for testing kits. Multiple patents have been filed for Covid-19 vaccines in development(https://msfaccess.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/COVID_Brief_ProposalWTOWaiver_ENG_2020.pdf ). Even the stockpiles of potential vaccines have been reportedly cornered by the rich countries.

 Unequal Access to Medical Products across Countries even in times of Global Crisis

More than nine months into the pandemic, the situation across the globe remains grim not only in terms of the spread and impact of the pandemic but also the availability of medical products. On the one hand global supply chains have broken down leading to supply shortages, on the other the demand has been increasing due to rising incidence of coronavirus. The Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) are the worst hit because the Covid-19 pandemic has not just been a public health crisis, it has been economically devastating as well. The national budgets of these countries are severely strained and most of them also lack the production capacity of the much needed medical products. It is unfortunate that in such dire times when the world is waiting for a vaccine we are witnessing (https://twn.my/title2/briefing_papers/twn/Inovio%20countersued%20IP-COVID%20Jul%202020%20Hammond.pdf) manufacturers relying on proprietary production techniques thereby potentially making vaccines more expensive and less available, large commitments of manufacturing capacity in 2021/2022 being sealed up in contracts, and rich countries locking down COVID-19 vaccine supplies through big money contracts(https://launchandscalefaster.org/covid-19).

Appropriating Public Funds for Private Profits

Public funding must cater to people’s needs rather than corporate greed. Ironically, out of the total funding of 96 million USD for research into Coronaviral diseases (including MERS, SARS) during 2016-18, the bulk 93% has been public funding, 6% by philanthropic organisations and less than 1% by the industry. If we look at the larger set of Emerging Infectious diseases, the proportion of public funding is 77% and that of industry 18% during 2014-18 (https://gfinderdata.policycuresresearch.org/) Even for the Covid-19 pandemic, it is largely public funds that have been committed by various governments. The big pharma, thus, uses public funds for R&D to garner private profits, taking advantage of the IPR regime without any concrete commitment to share the technologies and know how developed through public funding to scale up the production through non-originator manufactures.

Multilateral Trade Policy – Creating Monopoly Profits

Just as the TRIPS agreement was bulldozed on to the least developed and developing countries during the 1990s in the name of ‘free and fair’ trade regime, so are the developed countries arguing to protect the IPRs, which are in fact means for creation of monopoly profits. The big corporations and the rich countries were as hand in glove then as they are today. The trade policy regime has led to concentration of manufacture products in a few countries. As per a WTO report (https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news20_e/rese_03apr20_e.pdf), Germany, the United States (US), and Switzerland supply 35% of world’s medical products; China, Germany and the US export 40% of personal protective products. Such concentration of production in times of huge global demand is bound to lead to profiteering and to deal with this is to decentralise production through local manufacturing. To do this, access to the whole range of technologies and strategies for manufacturing these products is required.

TRIPS flexibilities are insufficient

TRIPS flexibilities were included in the Doha Development Agenda in order to safeguard LMICs from the adverse impact of patent regime. However, it has been effective only on a few occasions because of arm-twisting tactics of the big pharma, operating in cahoots with the rich country governments through bilateral pressures on countries as also lobbying by the big pharma against generic drugs. Also, the rules for compulsory licensing apply only on a case-by-case and product-by-product basis, which slows down the ability of countries to scale up production. Even Article 31bis, a mechanism to supply countries with insufficient manufacturing capacity, is limited in its application. TRIPS obligations, furthering the IPR regime, would only exacerbate the crisis.

Global Solidarity – A Farce!

The WHO has got little support by pharma industry for its Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative (https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/global-research-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/covid-19-technology-access-pool), aiming at voluntary contribution of IP, technologies and data to support global sharing and scale up of manufacturing and supply of COVID-19 health technologies. Voluntary cooperative approaches such as the COVAX are only a short term solution and only work towards maintaining the current business models of big pharma. The GAVI-CEPI initiative has refused to address the issue of patents and other intellectual property rights even on the issue of Covid-19 preferring to work with global pharma MNC’s on vaccine development and pooling philanthropic resources for the poorer countries. Such philanthro-capitalist measures only deepen the structural inequalities in global health architecture.

The need of the hour is to dismantle, or at least limit the IPR regime, which promotes profits for a few at the cost of lives of the people. With the world facing such unprecedented public health crisis, it is important that the TRIPS obligations are waived off, at least until the situation comes under control, as mentioned in the India-South Africa proposal. A collective global struggle is required towards ensuring that the interests of people are given precedence over profits and the greed of capital!

 

Fog over Covid-19 Vaccines in India: All-India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) Position Paper

click here to see the English pdf of AIPSNPositionPaper-Vaccine-Politics16Dec2020

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Fog over Covid-19 Vaccines in India

All-India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) Position Paper

16 Dec 2020

Many new developments have come about in recent weeks regarding Vaccines against Covid19 both internationally and in India. These have raised some optimism, but also several concerns about vaccine politics, undue commercial influence and other extraneous factors playing out around the world and, specifically, in India. This Position Paper focuses chiefly on India, within the global context, whereas international dimensions have been dealt with in a separate Statement and the Indian response to EUA for vaccines was highlighted in another Statement.

AIPSN calls for a science-based, equitable and rigorously conceived nation-wide policy in India for development, manufacture and deployment of vaccines in a free, universal vaccination strategy against Covid-19 as discussed below.

 

  1. Context and Status

Accelerated development and deployment of a safe and effective vaccine is crucial to combat the rampaging Covid-19 pandemic to protect individuals and enable full and safe re-opening of the economy and society. Access to free vaccination is essential for people’s right to life and health, since the disease has a significant burden of preventable morbidity or serious illness and mortality or deaths. Though the proportion of infected persons who get serious disease is low, in absolute numbers the number of persons who are at risk is unacceptably high. Free vaccination is also necessary since it is low-income working people who have paid the maximum social costs of the lock-down and disruption of the economy, and because vaccine development has mostly been done with public funds. At the same time, a nationwide vaccination programme is a challenge and raises crucial questions including with regard to the preparedness of the public health system in India to deliver this without compromising other essential health services.

Internationally, some leading vaccine candidates have, in recent weeks, declared high levels of efficacy or effectiveness based on preliminary results from on-going Phase-3 clinical trials. US-German Pfizer-BioNTech and US-based Moderna have both declared efficacy of above 90% for their two-dose  vaccines and applied for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in the US and Conditional Marketing Agreement (CMA) in EU. Both these vaccines are relatively expensive (at around USD 40 (Pfizer) and USD 70 (Moderna) for two doses) and, importantly, require very low temperature cold chains, adding to the costs and delivery challenges for India and other developing countries. At the time of writing, Pfizer has obtained a global first EUA in the UK and subsequently in Bahrain, Canada, and US.

UK-based Oxford University-Astra Zeneca, which is partnering with the world’s largest vaccine manufacture Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), for mass production of its vaccine, has claimed average 70% efficacy across different modes and 90% efficacy at specific dosages. This double-dose vaccine is expected to be relatively inexpensive at around USD 6 and, significantly, can be stored at ordinary refrigerator temperatures, making delivery easier in India and other developing countries. SII has publicly claimed that it would be supplying around 300 million doses for India by mid-2021.

Russia’s RDIF-Gamaleya Institute too has declared effectiveness of over 90% for its “experimental” Sputnik-V vaccine. The powdered version requires storage at refrigerator-like temperatures, while the liquid version has to be at -18 deg C. The vaccine is expected to cost about USD 20 for 2 doses. This vaccine is undergoing Phase-3 trials in different countries including India and is to be manufactured by Hetero Biopharma in Hyderabad.

China’s Sinovac is being deployed widely in China and also in Brazil, and is gearing up for global supply when regulatory approvals are obtained, with a price tag internationally of around USD 60 for two doses and also requiring only refrigerator-like temperatures. Again at the time of writing, another China-origin vaccine from Sinopharm has been declared by the UAE as having 86% efficacy in Phase-3 trials in that country where it had been given EUA in September for front-line workers, but data from the trials are still not public.

These developments represent a significant achievement for science and medical research, because these promising results, however limited and preliminary have been attained in less than a year from the outbreak of the Covid-19 disease compared to the normally expected several years for vaccine development.

However, detailed data related to all these vaccine trials have not yet been published or peer-reviewed, which would bring out additional and important information such as effectiveness in different age-groups and segments of the population, prevention or reduction of severe illness and deaths, prevention of transmission, duration of immunity or protection etc. These properties may vary for different vaccines and may influence choices for deployment. Other vaccine candidates too are at various stages of clinical trials, and may similarly also obtain EUA over the next 3-6 months.

Therefore, questions have already been raised about how scientific, rigorous or transparent these EUAs have been. Both “vaccine nationalism” and commercial interests are known to be deeply involved, apart from panic response by governments in the face of failures to control the pandemic, as evidenced by pronouncements of government spokespersons in many countries including in India. The sharp rise of concerned company values in stock markets could also be contributing to the haste in these announcements.

In India, several indigenously developed vaccine candidates have also come to the forefront in recent weeks. Leading candidates are from ICMR/NIV-Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad, Zydus Cadilla in Ahmadabad and Gennova in Pune. There are already undergoing, or soon to start, Phase-3 trials and are expected to become available in early to mid-2021. Some other promising indigenous candidates are a few months behind. The Gennova vaccine, co-developed with HDT Biotech of the US and supported through seed funding by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), which has also supported indigenous development of some other vaccines, has recently received approval to start Phase-1 and 2 clinical human trials in India. This vaccine is of particular importance for future scientific and medical research in India since it is the first indigenous development of an mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine, using a technology that may also be very useful for new-generation pharmaceuticals for treatment of infectious diseases and cancers.

After the Prime Minister’s recent visits to and meetings with several of these companies to encourage them in their efforts, he is reported to have also instructed the regulatory agencies to facilitate the expedited approvals process. It is important that data from clinical trials for all these candidates are scientifically assessed without “vaccine nationalism,” pressure from political or commercial interests, cronyism or favoritism and also meet high standards of efficacy and safety, especially since high efficacy percentages have  been announced by  leading international candidates.

 

 

  1. Need for transparent, science-based trials and approvals

In this context, extraneous considerations do appear to be creating untoward interference in scientific processes involved in vaccine trials, assessments and expedited or emergency approvals with implications for deployment as well. There are indications, covered in the media and supported by several experts, that ongoing clinical trials for vaccine candidates are “designed to succeed” in several ways.

It may be recalled that the Director General, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) had, earlier this year, written to all hospitals where clinical trials were underway demanding that they expedite results by 15th August this year, clearly to enable a grand announcement from the Red Fort. Fortunately, a massive outcry by scientists, medical professionals and civil society organizations brought about a retreat from this blatant attempt at pressurization. However, the danger remains in many ways.

Thresholds for efficacy or effectiveness (i.e. the percentage of infections the vaccine prevents), different aspects of efficacy as discussed earlier, as well as the sample size required for grant of EUA, may be lowered to enable vaccine candidates to more easily pass the test. While anxiety to roll-out an indigenous vaccine quickly through EUA is understandable for several reasons, it is crucial that clinical trials and assessments of results are, and continue to be, conducted transparently by scientific-medical Data Review Boards independent of political and bureaucratic influence, and results be made public and, when completed Phase-3 trials, be published and subject to peer review. This is essential to build global and domestic public confidence in Indian-origin vaccines.

In this context, it is a matter of considerable satisfaction that the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organization (DSCCO), at its meeting on 9th December 2020, has kept pending its consideration on the applications for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of Covid-19 Vaccines by SII and Bharat Biotech, and has asked for additional information. The regulatory agency Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) was to have decided on grant of EUA based on SEC’s recommendations. The SEC has, at least for now, rightly asserted its responsibility for scientific assessment of Covid vaccine candidates independent of political, bureaucratic or commercial interests.

The SEC decision has come against the background of considerable pressure from different levels of government, such as several recent public statements by the Health Secretary, Dr.V.K.Paul of Niti Aayog heading the National Task Force on Covid-19, and by DG ICMR. These officials pushed for a quick grant of EUA for these and other applicants, rather than respecting due process and scientific evaluation of data relating to safety and efficacy.

Urgency for approval and deployment of vaccines is no doubt important, but not at the cost of safety or potential impact in tackling the pandemic. More robust data would be available soon, providing opportunity to “hasten slowly”.  Self-reliance and encouraging indigenous research and manufacturing industry too are important, but sloppy or unscientific decision-making relating to public health will only damage the reputation of Indian science and regulatory processes, far outweighing any brownie points gained by rolling-out vaccination a few weeks early. Problematic EUA approval may also add to existing vaccine skepticism or hesitancy among the public.

The SEC and DCGI should therefore fearlessly conduct a thorough scientific assessment of available early data from Phase-3 trials in India or abroad, resisting pressure from different quarters. SEC/DCGI should also release the data based on which any recommendation is made so as to enhance transparency and secure the confidence of the scientific and medical community in India and internationally. This is especially crucial if India is to contribute to the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic through its indigenously developed and manufactured vaccines. While granting EUA, it is also important to set up extensive surveillance of the vaccination programme, and to continue with rigorous Phase-III trials and peer review and publication of its data.

It must be also understood that, at this stage of development of different vaccines, it is not clear whether each vaccine is efficient at preventing infection, as distinct from preventing serious disease or mortality. It is also important to know whether infection can spread from persons administered specific vaccines, and the duration for which each vaccine protects persons. These specificities need to be taken into account for decisions on deployment. These unknowns at the present stage and the need to find answers them underline the necessity for continuation of clinical trials involving the larger numbers of enrolled volunteers, extensive post-vaccination surveillance and, importantly, continuing with all other public health measures of disease prevention and epidemic management.

 

The reputation of India’s science, vaccine manufacturing industry and regulatory institutions depends heavily on such unbiased, rigorous and science-based assessments, since India could potentially emerge, now or in the future, as a major exporter of low-cost indigenously developed vaccines especially to other developing countries.

 

  1. Free and Transparent Vaccine deployment strategy

Ruling parties in different States are making promises of free vaccines to all, especially in the run-up to State elections. The nation needs a science-based and nationwide policy on vaccine deployment to be implemented by States with additional measures if desired, keeping in mind, the phased availability of different vaccines. The National Task Force on Covid-19 headed by Dr.V.K.Paul of Niti Aayog recently announced a prioritization roadmap proposing to initially vaccinate health care workers, other frontline workers, security personnel and those above 50 years of age and persons with co-morbidities, amounting to an estimated 300 million persons, starting perhaps in March 2021.

A clear, well reasoned and long term vaccination roadmap is required, especially keeping in mind the different indigenous vaccines set to obtain regulatory approval in the near future.  The policy needs to more definitively identify those included in the category of “frontline workers,” how senior citizens and those with co-morbidities would be enumerated, address phase-wise coverage of the rest of the population especially children and young adults not mentioned so far but whose immunization against Covid is necessary for early and much-needed resumption of safe and regular in-person education. It is also important to specify which categories of the population, such as infants or the elderly, would be immunized using which vaccine, depending on the efficacy characteristics of available vaccines.

The Prime Minister in his televised address to the nation on October 20 assured that the government seeks to ensure “delivery of the vaccine to every citizen.” However, the Health Secretary in the presence of DG ICMR stated categorically that the government has never committed to universal vaccination which was in fact not necessary since  the need is only to break the chain of transmission and obtain ‘herd immunity,’ and therefore the government may not vaccinate the entire population. It would, however, be extremely difficult to decide which sections to leave out of the vaccination programme and explain such a decision, since this would raise serious apprehensions of discrimination or injustice on different grounds.

Further, although achieving a threshold level of herd immunity (loosely estimated at 60% of the population) could prevent epidemic spread, the disease would still remain endemic in the country especially in population sub-groups, with significant numbers developing the disease and more limited outbreaks continuing in different parts of the country. Similar phenomena are seen in diseases like measles and diphtheria. The more skewed the demographic characteristics of the persons immunized, the less would be the braking effect of herd immunity.

In the Indian context, equity as a value and principle demands that those least able to practice social distancing, because of working and living conditions, need it most. All things considered universal vaccination may be the best option to prevent arbitrariness, real or perceived discrimination and emergence of a black market, besides enabling more robust and sustainable disease control.

A danger is that many Vaccine manufacturers in India and other corporate interests are already lobbying for the Government to allow delivery of vaccines by the private health sector at market prices to those who can afford to pay, as was done in Covid Tests and Hospital charges. Such a vaccine deployment strategy would, however, completely undermine equity and divert precious vaccine doses to privileged paying sections away from the vast poor underprivileged masses, and would also distort government procurement and equitable vaccination.

It is therefore essential that the Government of India announces a clear and transparent vaccination programme including a categorical and binding commitment to a programme of free universal vaccination with a fair and transparent policy of phase-wise prioritization for different segments of the population so as to ensure access to most vulnerable segments and marginalized sections.

 

  1. Obstacles to domestic manufacturing and deployment

            There is much confusion regarding the Indian government’s participation in COVAX, the newly created global institution under the Global Vaccine Initiative (GAVI) and WHO. COVAX is funded by donor countries, corporate philanthropy notably the Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust, as well as the 10% down payment from self-funded participating countries. COVAX has provided financing to different vaccine developers and manufacturers in exchange for a proportion of vaccines produced, all through confidential agreements. COVAX also has agreements with participating countries to provide upto 20% of their vaccine requirement, for the duration of the agreement period which is now only till end-2021, with special arrangements for lower income countries. On the other hand, rich countries with 13% of the world’s population have already purchased over 50% of the world’s scheduled vaccine production and many other such bilateral agreements have been signed.

In this context, several Indian vaccine manufacturers who have agreements to manufacture leading vaccines developed elsewhere, would be bound by confidential agreements made with COVAX and also with their corporate partners as regards prices and supply schedules. Voluntary licenses granted by vaccine developers to Indian manufacturers prevent the latter from transferring the technology to other Indian companies or from exporting to countries not covered by COVAX.  It would therefore be difficult for Indian vaccine manufacturers to scale-up vaccine production and supply to the levels required by India.

Government of India needs to work out how to overcome this problem. It is recommended that any agreements India signs with COVAX should be within an improved framework and its governance made more multilateral and democratic with a greater role for WHO, and removal of corporate influence. Government should also make public to the Indian people the terms and conditions of agreements with COVAX.

The government should urgently evolve and implement measures for scaling up manufacture of the most appropriate vaccines for our needs, through support to existing  manufacturing units in private sector to expand their capacity and by encouraging public sector manufacture in this area irrespective of the vaccine being indigenously developed or licensed from international pharmaceuticals.

 

  1. Strengthen the public health system

Finally it should be emphasized that the vaccination programme will require massive strengthening and mobilization of the public health system in India including for follow-up, monitoring of side-effects and efficacy. The capacity of current cold chain infrastructure is only about 50% of what is required even for the existing package of immunization. The human resources gaps are also huge. Procuring, storing and distributing and administering vaccines to close to 800 million more persons, even if phased is going to require considerable expansion of cold chains equipment, infrastructure, refrigerated transport vehicles, and  skilled human resources at the field level.

Therefore any plan for vaccine deployment, must also make a firm and quantified commitment to increased financing of the public health system. In the absence of such a commitment, the vaccination programme will suffer and other essential health services including child immunization would also be undermined by large scale diversion of existing public health resources.

 

  1. AIPSN Demands

The Government of India needs to urgently undertake the following so as to ensure a safe, effective and free universal vaccination programme against Covid-19:

  1. Scrupulously monitor Phase-3 clinical trials for all indigenously developed vaccines and, after robust and independent scientific assessment of efficacy with peer review of trial results, grant Emergency Use Authorization within a definitive deadline within which such approvals can be applied for;
  2. Rapidly scale up manufacturing capacity by recruiting and re-tooling both public sector as well as private sector manufacturing units for both internationally and indigenously developed vaccines;
  3. Ensure transparency of agreements that Indian manufacturers have signed or may sign with COVAX/GAVI and Corporates. These may require further arrangements for systematic transfer of technology from international vaccine developers to Indian manufacturers to enable effective and rapid scaling-up manufacture and deployment in India;
  4. Make public the basis of approval, including evidence reviewed, provide details of the protocol, process and timelines followed in investigating any reported severe adverse events (SAEs);
  5. Make public the Government’s stand on indemnifying vaccine manufacturers;
  6. Actively advocate and lobby for declaration of all vaccines developed worldwide as global public goods and, if patents remain an obstacle, take steps to use compulsory licensing if necessary;
  7. Bring out a white paper on the system and related costs for vaccine procurement and delivery, along with details of the expansion of public health infrastructure and human resources that would go with it;
  8. Set up a Parliamentary Committee to oversee the implementation of the Covid-19 Vaccination programme in an effective, timely and equitable manner and a broad based Advisory Committee including representation of the scientific community and civil society organizations.

 

For clarifications contact:

P.Rajamanickam 9442915101;T.Sundararaman 99874388253;D. Raghunandan 9810098621

Statement On Scientific, Independent and Transparent Process for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of anti-Covid Vaccines in India

 

click here to see pdf of All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) Statement 

On Scientific, Independent and Transparent Process for

Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of anti-Covid Vaccines in India

 

AIPSN expresses satisfaction that the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organization (DSCCO), at its meeting on 9th December 2020, has kept pending any recommendations on applications for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of Covid-19 Vaccines by Serum Institute of India (SII) manufacturing the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine of the UK, and by Bharat Biotech making the indigenously developed ICMR/NIV vaccine. The SEC sought additional data from SII relating to its Phase-III trials in India and the pending regulatory approval process in the UK. In the case of Bharat Biotech, the SEC said it would proceed only after reviewing data from its on-going Phase-3 trials in India, whereas it had submitted only Phase-I/II data.  The regulatory agency Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) was to have decided on grant of EUA based on the recommendations of the SEC. The SEC, at least for now, has rightly asserted its role regarding scientific assessment of vaccine candidates independent of political, bureaucratic or commercial interests.

The SEC decision has come against the context of several recent public statements by the Health Secretary, Dr.V.K.Paul of Niti Aayog heading the National Task Force, and by DG ICMR pushing for a quick grant of EUA for these and other applicants, rather than respecting due process and sientific evaluation of data relating to safety and efficacy. DG ICMR in particular sought to undermine the importance of Phase-III trials data and suggested that some vague “cost-benefit assessment” would instead suffice for granting EUA, ignoring the obvious conflict of interest since one of the candidates has indeed been developed by an IMR laboratory!

The urgency for approval and deployment of vaccines is no doubt of importance, but not at the cost of safety or potential impact in reducing infection, transmission and severe illness or mortality. Robust data enabling a more scientific and considered decision based on Phase-3 trials data, whether from India or abroad, is likely to become available in a few weeks in any case. With the national case load on a declining trend, there is opportunity to hasten slowly as WHO recommends.  Self-reliance and encouraging indigenous research and manufacturing industry are undoubtedly important, but sloppy or unscientific decision-making relating to public health will only damage the reputation of Indian science and regulatory processes, far outweighing any brownie points gained by rolling-out of a vaccination programme a few weeks early, but which may later turn out to be problematic. Rolling out a vaccine without a proper appraisal of safety and efficacy may also lead to a backlash, adding to existing vaccine skepticism or hesitancy.

AIPSN therefore calls upon the SEC and DCGI to fearlessly conduct a thorough scientific assessment of available early data from Phase-3 trials in India or abroad independent of political, bureaucratic and commercial interests in deciding upon EUA for different vaccine candidates. AIPSN further calls for releasing the data based on which any recommendation is made in the interests of transparency, gain confidence of the scientific and medical community in India and internationally, and so as to allay any fears about safety and efficacy of vaccines to be rolled out. This is especially crucial if India is to contribute to the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic through its indigenously developed vaccines. While granting EUA, it is also important to set up extensive surveillance of the vaccination programme, and to continue with rigorous Phase-III trials and peer review and publication of its data.

For clarifications contact:

  1. Rajamanickam 9442915101 T. Sundararaman 99874388253  D. Raghunandan  9810098621

Joint Letter to Govt of India endorsed by 8 organisations and 145 individuals on Arogya Setu and other apps introduced during Covid19 pandemic

Click here to see the  Gmail – Joint Letter on Aarogya Setu and other COVID-19 apps

Click here to see the Joint Letter on Aarogya Setu by IFF, JSA, AISPN, FMES and other organisations and concerned individuals

 

Click here to view in FMES site

To
Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India
Email: hfm@gov.in
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India
Email: ravis@sansad.nic.in
Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Chairperson, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology
Email: office@tharoor.in, legislation@tharoor.in
17 September 2020
Subject: Technical, legal, ethical and implementation concerns regarding Aarogya Setu and other
apps introduced during COVID-19 in India
Dear sir,
We, the eight organisations and 145 individuals, consisting of public health advocates, experts in digital privacy, science and technology policy advocates, researchers, lawyers, journalists, medical professionals, students and other concerned persons want to express our deep concerns regarding the Aarogya Setu (AS) and other similar Apps related to the novel Corona virus epidemic. We are deeply concerned about violation of privacy, and compromised ethical principles and values, due to the AS App’s design, its deployment, related policies regarding data storage, preservation of privacy and data sharing, as well as overall policy implementation and inadequate legal frameworks for data protection and grievance redressal for users.
We appreciate the need of the hour viz.:
1. the unprecedented nature and massive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in India
2. the need for a multi-pronged approach to contain the pandemic and minimize its adverse impact on all
domains of our lives
3. therefore the need for innovative approaches, including digital technology-based ones, that may be required to augment and complement other containment and mitigation measures. We believe that the key challenge is ensuring that a balance is struck between achieving greater public good and safeguarding individuals’ rights and freedoms in alignment with frameworks provided by the Constitution of India, public health ethics discourse, International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR 2005), the Siracusa Principles on Civil and Human Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In this context, we conducted a detailed analysis of the AS App purposed as a catch-all solution, its Privacy Policy, Terms of Services (henceforth ToS) and Aarogya Setu Data Access and Knowledge Sharing Protocol, 2020 (henceforth, Protocol), and its code available on GitHub taking into account the broader eco-system in which Aarogya Setu has been deployed and is being used. This is presented in the more detailed position paper (attached as Annexure 1) which informs this statement articulating key issues across five domains viz., technical and platform design; legal and policy frames; transparency and public engagement; eco-system in India in which the App has been deployed; and ethics and human rights.
The key issues that we want to highlight are as follows:
I. Technical and platform design domain
At a technical level, the AS App does not conform to key technical best practices being developed internationally.

The following major concerns arise:
1. The AS App collects people’s GPS trails about which many democracies, technologists and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have had concerns. It uses centralised social graph analysis to map interactions between individuals, thereby contravening the strongly supported decentralised data storage systems which safeguards citizens’ real-world activities. It also uses a static Device ID which is rudimentary, and is prone to risks of re-identification (i.e. the anonymised personal data may be matched with the actual person thereby exposing who the person is).
2. The AS App’s centralised data storage system enables exporting of people’s sensitive personal details to an external government-operated server which is linked with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) database and others. These are being provided to third parties such as research universities and private consultancy firms. Overall, this is an expansive approach to data collection and extraction, and clearly undermines privacy of people’s data.
3. The AS App categorizes people as being at high risk of COVID-19 simply based on the App’s opaque algorithm and inaccurate Bluetooth and GPS based proximity tracking. This creates a non-trivial risk of false positives and negatives, leading to other severe social, personal and public health consequences. The use of self-reported symptoms also runs the risk of people wrongly marking themselves as positive or negative.
4. The AS App is not accessible to people with disabilities, especially those with vision and hearing disabilities.
II. Legal and policy domain
1. Aarogya Setu App’s privacy policy or supporting documents such as its ToS and the Protocol, assert that data retention or deletion requirements do not apply to people’s data which has been “anonymised” and can therefore be seamlessly shared with third parties.

This raises three key issues:
a. standards of ‘anonymization’ are not defined in the ToS and the Protocol
b. standards if any are not shared with the user and no consent sought for using their “anonymized” data
c. there is no sunset clause for the personal data AS App collects. The, “sunset” is to the protocol rather than the underlying personal data. This evokes concerns of permanent surveillance
2. The data security and protection framework under the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, are not applicable to government authorities, so there is no automatic or compulsory privacy protection
3. The voluntary Electronic Health Records Standards which provide certain privacy and security protocols for data disclosures during times of national priority, lacks suitable enforceability.
4. The latest draft of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 introduced in India’s Parliament in December 2019 is insufficient. It grants omnibus exemptions to Governments for emergency/epidemic situations which is inconsistent with the contours of the right to privacy and reasonable restrictions during emergency situations as prescribed by the Supreme Court of India in its seminal right to privacy judgement in KS Puttaswamy v Union of India (2017).
5. Obligations under the IHR 2005 to which India is legally bound, require governments to ensure that national legislative frameworks relating to data sharing are adopted and be consistent with international human rights frameworks and foundational ethical principles. Lack of such legal framework in India implies lack of protection from potential commercial surveillance.
6. From a policy perspective, there is no independent institutional oversight on (a) public agencies and the businesses developing these Apps; (b) ethical and human rights aspects; and (c) the App’s actual deployment.

III. Transparency and public engagement domain
1. As per information in the public domain, Government of India (GoI), had initiated building of the AS App on March 19, 2020, and it was launched on April 2, 2020. As per standard best practice, GoI should have issued a technical whitepaper and consulted the public and external stakeholders before launching the App. However, even now, more than four months since the AS App’s launch, GoI has not published any such document.
2. The lack of a structured public debate and public engagement around the AS App raises questions about its quality, and about the adequacy of ethical, procedural or institutional safeguards to mitigate risks arising from such technological interventions.
3. The National Informatics Center (NIC) has informed the media that it opted for a public-private partnership model to develop the AS App. For example, For example, UX Design at MakeMyTrip has been a private volunteer in building these systems. This evokes concerns of commercial exploitation and risk to privacy of the data collected through the AS App.
4. The underlying source code of the AS App was also not released for the longest time which is, again, best practice in such cases. Eventually, the GoI released the source code but it has not yet released the server-side code or the cloud functions. Experts have observed that the source code released on GitHub is inconsistent with the App which is being used by the public. This has therefore only marginal value in terms of transparency and is inconsistent with globally accepted standards of open source software.
5. There is ambiguity in the key AS App documents namely ToS, Protocol, and Privacy Policy. These include inadequate information for AS App users about the type and purpose of data collected, where and for how long data will be stored, with whom these data will be shared and for what purposes. A NITI Aayog official has indicated that data collected via the AS App is feeding into the development of India/Bharat Health Stack and that raises various other concerns but will not be dealt with here.
6. There is inadequate transparency about the various data points and inputs the App’s algorithm relies upon to arrive at its risk scoring of users as green, yellow, orange or red.

IV. India’s eco-system in which AS App is deployed
1. Indian governance systems habitually work in silos and inter-departmental coordination is extremely weak. Potential usefulness of the deployment of AS App depends upon how well the App data and its processing system is linked to contact tracing, testing and treatment through a well-equipped and trained health system. Unfortunately, there has been surprisingly little information put out so far by concerned government agencies as to how such institutional linkages have worked and how the App data has been used.
2. innovations in collection and processing of citizens’ data must comply with broader legal and ethical frameworks and constitutional rights of citizens which have historically been weak and have come under increasing threat in recent times.
3. the fact that the Ministry of Home Affairs is steering this effort instead of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, conveys that instead of linkage with testing and treatment, the AS App is more likely being purposed as a tool for surveillance and movement control, potentially leading to social coercion.

V. Constitutional and human rights, and public health ethics
1. The Medical Council of India’s Code of Ethics does not cover protocols for health data in circumstances when it is shared with the Government
2. The Government’s push to make the App effectively mandatory erodes individual autonomy as guaranteed by the Constitution
3. Critically, effectively mandatory use of the AS App is inconsistent with a recent WHO guidance on ethical considerations in the use of digital proximity tracing technologies.
4. The AS App’s Protocol is insufficient since it does not offer any legislative foundation for the AS App. Fundamental rights under the Constitution cannot be restricted by the Government even for legitimate purposes without express legislative authorisation.
5. Further, the Protocol fails to be consistent with standards of necessity and proportionality called for by both IHR 2005 and the Siracusa Principles. Specifically, it does not incorporate substantive language which sufficiently reigns in the government’s ability to collect, store, process, retain and process people’s sensitive personal details.

Against this backdrop, our demands are as follows:
I. For proportionality: Three points of emphasis must be design and architecture of the AS app; transparency and effective public engagement; and limits to retention time and use of the data.
1. There is a constitutional obligation to adopt the least restrictive/intrusive measure to achieve the stated purpose. These thresholds can be benchmarked against known technological best practices and models, and the kinds of interventions adopted by other constitutional democracies. The design of interventions must also ensure that they do not disproportionately impact people from certain backgrounds, identities, and regions.
2. A full release of specifications including cryptography, anonymization specifications, Application Programming Interface (API) specifications, and Bluetooth specifications.
3. Release of the source code for the current version of the AS App, given the fact that the released code does not match with the one in use, and release of the server-side code.
4. Development of a comprehensive privacy impact assessment, articulating accompanying risks associated with large scale roll-out of the App.
5. Commitment (i.e. sunset clauses that are clearly present in primary legislation) to permanently destroy the data and systems being built via AS App at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
6. The AS App must not in any way be made mandatory by government or private actors;
7. Among other things, the focus must be on assuring the public that these are temporary interventions which will not devolve into permanent surveillance and monitoring systems.

II. For legality
1. Suitable legislation is required aim to hold the Union and State governments and private actors accountable for leakage or any inappropriate use of App data during epidemics and communicable disease outbreaks.
2. Under this, governments may only access patient data through hospital records, and must preserve patient anonymity.
3. These frameworks should be solely under the control of public health institutions.

III. For necessity: The government must establish:
1. The contextual necessity of the new technological interventions like the AS App which monitors people’s movements since this is already being done by other actors (like telecom service providers).;
2. Grounds for treating the existing government databases, such as those maintained by ICMR and other existing surveillance mechanisms and hospital records as inadequate for the current purposes of responding to the pandemic
3. The expected advantage of interventions for collection of health and related information is collected, the actual technical effectiveness of the interventions itself, and a detailed cost-benefit/privacy impact analysis to evaluate risks before rolling out such Apps
4. Necessity as a dynamic construct, and that it is embedded through the life cycle of the AS programme. Within it there is a need for continual review of the programme as regards principles of transparency and accountability.

IV. Oversight Structures and Processes
1. The required legislation must create independent institutions for oversight separated from the political executive.
2. Towards this end, the agencies/institutions concerned should publish periodic reports informing the public if, and to what extent, the App is augmenting the Government’s response in treating and containing the spread of Covid-19. Based on such feedback loops, these institutions should be empowered to make decisions for course correction or even discontinuation of the programme itself, and the permanent destruction of the systems created.

We hope that you will take cognisance of these concerns and address them urgently.

With regards
Apar Gupta – Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF)
Sunita VS Bandewar- Forum for Medical Ethics Society (FMES) and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan
Sulakshana Nandi- Jan Swasthya Abhiyan
P.Rajamanickam- All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN)

This letter has been endorsed by the following organisations, networks and individuals:
Organisational endorsements
Janchetna Sansthan Abu Road
Lok Manch New Delhi
Rethink Aadhaar Campaign India
Right To Food Campaign India

Individual Endorsements
1 Aayushman Aggarwal Student
2 Abha Feminist activist
3 Adarsh Ranjan Student
4 Akshayarka Deka Big Data Analyst
5 Alka Pawangadkar Translator/Trainer
6 Amar Jesani Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Mumbai
7 Amitranjan Basu Doctor, Shaheed Hospital
8 Ammu Abraham Women’s rights and Civil liberties activist
9 Anand Nandakumar Lawyer
10 Anand Philip Independent Researcher, Bangalore
11 Anja Kovacs Director, Internet Democracy Project
12 Anurag Modi Social Activist, Shramik Adivasi Sanghatana, Madhya Pradesh
13 Apoorva Umap Student
14 Arindom Bora Student
15 Arundhati Dhuru Social activist, National convener NAPM
16 Arvind IT
17 Ashish Kothari Kalpavriksh, Pune
18 Assunta Pardhe Social worker and lawyer, Chief Functionary Chetna Mahila Vikas Kendra
19 Avi Student
20 Aysha Concerned citizen
21 Barathi Nakkeeran Independent Researcher
22 Barun Mukhopadhyay Professor (Retired), Indian Statistical Institute, Biological Anthropology Unit, Kolkata
23 Bindu Desai Retired Neurologist
24 Ch Narendra Senior Journalist, Hyderabad
25 Chayanika Shah Queer Feminist Researcher
26 Deepika Joshi Researcher, PUCL, Chhattisgarh
27 Deepriya Snehi Advocate
28 Devdutta Lawyer
29 Devika Shetty Independent mental health activist, Goa
30 Dharmesh shah Researcher
31 Divya Sornaraja Engineer
32 Dr.Ganesh Singh Dharmshaktu, Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Government Medical College,         Haldwani Uttarakhand
33 Dr Shakeel Physician. The Polyclinic
34 Dr Shriyuta A Infosys fellow in Public Health, SEARCH, Gadchiroli
35 Dr Sylvia Karpagam Public health doctor
36 Dr. Harish Gupta Consultant Physician , Internal Medicine, Lucknow
37 Dr. J. Charles Davis Professor of Bioethics and Moral Theology
38 Dr. Kamaxi Bhate Professor Emeritus KEM Hospital
39 Dr. Mahesh Devnani Doctor, Hospital Administrator
40 Dr. Mohan Rao Former professor at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU
41 Dr. Prashanth N S Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru.
42 Dr. Satendra Singh, Disability Rights activist & doctor at University College of Medical Sciences & GTB Hospital,         Delhi
43 Dr. V Visvanathan Computer Technologist
44 Dr.Mohan Rao Independent public health researcher
45 Dr.Tusharkanti Dey Retired Academician
46 Fatima A Castillo Researcher
47 Gargi Sharma Software Engineer
48 Geeta Seshu Journalist, Co-Editor, Free Speech Collective
49 Goldee kushwaha Student
50 Gurpreet Singh Digital Marketing Manager
51 Hari Prasad Tripathi Student
52 Hashim Khan Working, CGSACS – Deputy Director
53 Hrishikesh Bhaskaran Secretary, Swathanthanthra Malayalam Computing
54 Imtitangit Pongener Student
55 Indira C Public health researcher, Delhi
56 Jagannath Chatterjee Patient Advocate, Bhubaneswar
57 Jashodhara Dasgupta Independent researcher, New Delhi.
58 Jhuma Sen Associate Professor, JGLS
59 Joy Bhattacharjee Cloud Infrastructure Consultant
60 Jyotsna Tirkey Service, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan
61 K Ram Independent Educator
62 Kabi Activist
63 Kalyani Menon Sen Independent researcher
64 Kamayani Bali Mahabal Trainer Gender, Health and Human Rights, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Mumbai – Convenor
65 Kamlesh Khantwal State Coordinator BGVS and JSA Uttarakhand
66 Khrisha Shah Entrepreneur, Dysco (Co-Founder & CEO)
67 Kim Fernandes Delhi/University of Pennsylvania
68 Kiran Jonnalagadda Technologist
69 Leo Saldanha Researcher, Environment Support Group, Bangalore, India
70 Linda Chhakchhuak Concerned citizen
71 Madhuresh Kumar National Convener, NAPM
72 Mahathi Doctor
73 Mahesh Devnani Chandigarh
74 Maithreyi M R Consulting editor
75 Manavi Lawyer
76 Mansi Sood Advocate
77 Mary Mathai Scientist
78 Md Rushd Al Amin Student
79 Medha Kale Social activist and Translator, Trustee, Tathapi Trust Pune
80 Meena Gopal Researcher and activist, Forum against Oppresssion of Women
81 Mrinal Sharma Lawyer, Amnesty International India, Policy Advisor
82 Murali Advocate
83 Nagmani Rao Retired Academic, Citizen
84 Navneet Wadkar PhD Scholar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
85 Neelanjana Public Health Researcher, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Chhattisgarh
86 Nikhat Hetavkar Law student
87 Nilanjana Dey Marketer
88 Niraj Bhatt Researcher, Citizen consumer and civic Action Group
89 Niranjan Sathyamurthy Illustrator
90 Oishik Sircar Academic
91 Padmini Ray Murray Independent Researcher, Founder, Design Beku
92 Paranjoy Guha Thakurta Journalist, author, publisher and documentary film-maker
93 Paulomi Chakraborty Associate Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences
94 Peehu Pardeshi Teacher, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan member
95 Piyali Mitra Researcher, Forum for Medical Ethics, Member
96 Prabha Doctor
97 Pradeep Esteves Context India, Bangalore
98 Pranav Mattapalli Student
99 Praveer Peter Social Worker, Convenor, Solidarity Centre, Ranchi
100 Preethika Lawyer
101 Prof Dr Fatima Castillo Manila, Philippines
102 Prof Dr Siby George IITB, Mumbai
103 Raghav Mendiratta Lawyer
104 Rajalakshmi Independent
105 Rajendra Gadwal Social Activist, Samajwadi Jan Parishad
106 Rajendran Narayanan Assistant Professor, Azim Premji University
107 Ravi Duggal Independent Researcher and Activist
108 Ricky Saldanha Research & Insights professional
109 Rishab Bailey Lawyer and technology policy researcher, New Delhi
110 Roopashri Sinha Freelance research consultant
111 Rujvi Lawyer
112 Sagari Ramdas Veterinary Scientist, Food Sovereignty Alliance, India Member
113 S Saroja Director – Consumer Protection, Citizen consumer and civic Action Group
114 Saloni Madan Student
115 Sandeep K Shukla Professor
116 Sandeep Pandey Social activist, Vice President Socialist Party (India)
117 Sandhya Srinivasan Journalist
118 Sangeeta CEHAT
119 Santosh Mahindrakar Nurse
120 Saurabh Bhattacharjee Academia
121 Senthamil Selvan K. Health activist
122 Shals Mahajan Writer, Member, LABIA – A Queer Feminist LBT Collective
123 Shamim Meghani Modi Teacher, FMES
124 Sharmila IIT Bombay
125 Shatakshi Student
126 Siddharth Chakravarty, Researcher
127 Srijit Mishra, Bhubaneswar
128 Srinivas kodali, Independent Researcher
129 Srinivasan G , Technology Professional, Sochara – Volunteer
130 Subhashis Banerjee, Professor, IIT Delhi
131 Sudha N, Researcher & Activist
132 Sudhir Pattnaik Senior Journalist, Bhubaneswar
133 Sujata Gothoskar Researcher and activist
134 Sujata Patel Teacher and Researcher
135 Sujata Sethi Rohtak
136 Sukla Sen Peace Activist
137 Sumi Krishna Independent researcher, Bengaluru
138 Sunep Imsong Tech Lead
139 Sunil Tamminaina Research Scholar
140 Supriya Subramani Postdoc
141 Surbhi Shrivastava PhD Student
142 Swatija Retired
143 Tanvi Sharma Advocate, Volunteers Collective
144 Tara Murli Architect , Chennai
145 Vivek Divan Centre for Health Equity, Law & Policy: Indian Law Society, Pune

Joint Statement on Technical, legal, ethical and implementation concerns regarding Aarogya Setu and other apps introduced during COVID-19 in India by JSA, IFF, FMES and AIPSN

Joint Statement on Technical, legal, ethical and implementation concerns regarding Aarogya Setu and other apps introduced during COVID-19 in India

by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF),Forum for Medical Ethics Society (FMES), and All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN)

 

Click here for pdf of Joint Statement on Aarogya Setu by IFF, JSA, AISPN, FMES

 

We, the four signatory networks of organizations of public health advocates, experts in digital privacy, science and technology policy advocates and other stakeholders issue this Statement for generating public understanding and for submission to the Government of India (GoI) and concerned Union Ministries – Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEIT), and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) – about our deep concerns regarding the Aarogya Setu (AS) and other similar Apps related to the novel Corona virus epidemic. We are deeply concerned about violation of privacy, and compromised ethical principles and values, due to the AS App‟s design, its deployment, related policies regarding data storage, preservation of privacy and data sharing, as well as overall policy implementation and inadequate legal frameworks for data protection and grievance redressal for users.

We appreciate the need of the hour viz.:
1. the unprecedented nature and massive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in India 2. the need for a multi-pronged approach to contain the pandemic and minimize its adverse impact on all domains of our lives 3. therefore the need for innovative approaches, including digital technology-based ones, that may be required to augment and complement other containment and mitigation measures

Key challenge

Ensuring that a balance is struck between achieving greater public good and safeguarding individuals‟ rights and freedoms in alignment with frameworks provided by the Constitution of India, public health ethics discourse, International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR 2005), the Siracusa Principles on Civil and Human Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this context, we conducted a detailed analysis of the AS App purposed as a catch-all solution, its Privacy Policy, Terms of Services (henceforth ToS) and Aarogya Setu Data Access and Knowledge Sharing Protocol, 2020 (henceforth, Protocol), and its code available on GitHub taking into account the broader eco-system in which Aarogya Setu has been deployed and is being used. This is presented in the more detailed position paper available with us and which informs this statement articulating key issues across five domains viz., technical and platform design; legal and policy frames; transparency and public engagement; eco-system in India in which the App has been deployed; and ethics and human rights.

Key issues

I. Technical and platform design domain

At a technical level, the AS App does not conform to key technical best practices being developed internationally. The following major concerns arise:
1. The AS App collects people‟s GPS trails about which many democracies, technologists and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have had concerns. It uses centralised social graph analysis to map interactions between individuals, thereby contravening the strongly supported decentralised data storage systems which safeguards citizens‟ real-world activities. It also uses a static Device ID which is rudimentary, and is prone to risks of re-identification (i.e. the anonymised personal data may be matched with the actual person thereby exposing who the person is).

2. The AS App‟s centralised data storage system enables exporting of people‟s sensitive personal details to an external government-operated server which is linked with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) database and others. These are being provided to third parties such as research universities and private consultancy firms. Overall, this is an expansive approach to data collection and extraction, and clearly undermines privacy of people‟s data.

3. The AS App categorizes people as being at high risk of COVID-19 simply based on the App‟s opaque algorithm and inaccurate Bluetooth and GPS based proximity tracking. This creates a non-trivial risk of false positives and negatives, leading to other severe social, personal and public health consequences. The use of self-reported symptoms also runs the risk of people wrongly marking themselves as positive or negative.

II. Legal and policy domain
1. Aarogya Setu App‟s privacy policy or supporting documents such as its ToS and the Protocol, assert that data retention or deletion requirements do not apply to people‟s data which has been “anonymised” and can therefore be seamlessly shared with third parties.

This raises three key issues:

a. standards of “anonymization” are not defined in the ToS and the Protocol

b. standards if any are not shared with the user and no consent sought for using their “anonymized” data

c. there is no sunset clause for the personal data AS App collects. The, “sunset” is to the protocol rather than the underlying personal data. This evokes concerns of permanent surveillance

2. The data security and protection framework under the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, are not applicable to government authorities, so there is no automatic or compulsory privacy protection

3. The voluntary Electronic Health Records Standards which provide certain privacy and security protocols for data disclosures during times of national priority, lacks suitable enforceability.

4. The latest draft of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 introduced in India‟s Parliament in December 2019 is insufficient. It grants omnibus exemptions to Governments for emergency/ epidemic situations which is inconsistent with the contours of the right to privacy and reasonable restrictions during emergency situations as prescribed by the Supreme Court of India in its seminal right to privacy judgement in KS Puttaswamy v Union of India (2017).

5. Obligations under the IHR 2005 to which India is legally bound, require governments to ensure that national legislative frameworks relating to data sharing are adopted and be consistent with international human rights frameworks and foundational ethical principles. Lack of such legal framework in India implies lack of protection from potential commercial surveillance.

6. From a policy perspective, there is no independent institutional oversight on (a) public agencies and the businesses developing these Apps; (b) ethical and human rights aspects; and (c) the App‟s actual deployment.

III. Transparency and public engagement domain
1. As per information in the public domain, Government of India (GoI), had initiated building of the AS App on March 19, 2020, and it was launched on April 2, 2020. As per standard best practice, GoI should have issued a technical whitepaper and consulted the public and external stakeholders before launching the App. However, even now, more than four months since the AS App‟s launch, GoI has not published any such document.

2. The lack of a structured public debate and public engagement around the AS App raises questions about its quality, and about the adequacy of ethical, procedural or institutional safeguards to mitigate risks arising from such technological interventions.

3. The National Informatics Center (NIC) has informed the media that it opted for a public-private partnership model to develop the AS App. For example, For example, UX Design at MakeMyTrip has been a private volunteer in building these systems. This evokes concerns of commercial exploitation and risk to privacy of the data collected through the AS App.

4. The underlying source code of the AS App was also not released for the longest time which is, again, best practice in such cases. Eventually, the GoI released the source code but it has not yet released the server-side code or the cloud functions. Experts have observed that the source code released on GitHub is inconsistent with the App which is being used by the public. This has therefore only marginal value in terms of transparency and is inconsistent with globally accepted standards of open source software.

5. There is ambiguity in the key AS App documents namely ToS, Protocol, and Privacy Policy. These include inadequate information for AS App users about the type and purpose of data collected, where and for how long data will be stored, with whom these data will be shared and for what purposes. A NITI Aayog official has indicated that data collected via the AS App is feeding into the development of India/Bharat Health Stack and that raises various other concerns but will not be dealt with here. 6. There is inadequate transparency about the various data points and inputs the App‟s algorithm relies upon to arrive at its risk scoring of users as green, yellow, orange or red.

IV. India’s eco-system in which AS App is deployed

1. Indian governance systems habitually work in silos and inter-departmental coordination is extremely weak. Potential usefulness of the deployment of AS App depends upon how well the App data and its processing system is linked to contact tracing, testing and treatment through a well-equipped and trained health system. Unfortunately, there has been surprisingly little information put out so far by concerned government agencies as to how such institutional linkages have worked and how the App data has been used.

2. innovations in collection and processing of citizens‟ data must comply with broader legal and ethical frameworks and constitutional rights of citizens which have historically been weak and have come under increasing threat in recent times.

3. the fact that the Ministry of Home Affairs is steering this effort instead of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, conveys that instead of linkage with testing and treatment, the AS App is more likely being purposed as a tool for surveillance and movement control, potentially leading to social coercion.

V. Constitutional and human rights, and public health ethics

1. The Medical Council of India‟s Code of Ethics does not cover protocols for health data in circumstances when it is shared with the Government

2. The Government‟s push to make the App effectively mandatory erodes individual autonomy as guaranteed by the Constitution

3. Critically, effectively mandatory use of the AS App is inconsistent with a recent WHO guidance on ethical considerations in the use of digital proximity tracing technologies.

4. The AS App’s Protocol is insufficient since it does not offer any legislative foundation for the AS App. Fundamental rights under the Constitution cannot be restricted by the Government even for legitimate purposes without express legislative authorisation.

5. Further, the Protocol fails to be consistent with standards of necessity and proportionality called for by both IHR 2005 and the Siracusa Principles. Specifically, it does not incorporate substantive language which sufficiently reigns in the government‟s ability to collect, store, process, retain and process people‟s sensitive personal details.

Our Demands: Against this backdrop, our Organizations demand as follows:

I. For proportionality: Three points of emphasis must be design and architecture of the AS app; transparency and effective public engagement; and limits to retention time and use of the data.

1. There is a constitutional obligation to adopt the least restrictive/intrusive measure to achieve the stated purpose. These thresholds can be benchmarked against known technological best practices and models, and the kinds of interventions adopted by other constitutional democracies. The design of interventions must also ensure that they do not disproportionately impact people from certain backgrounds, identities, and regions.

2. A full release of specifications including cryptography, anonymization specifications, Application Programming Interface (API) specifications, and Bluetooth specifications.

3. Release of the source code for the current version of the AS App, given the fact that the released code does not match with the one in use, and release of the server-side code.

4. Development of a comprehensive privacy impact assessment, articulating accompanying risks associated with large scale roll-out of the App.

5. Commitment (i.e. sunset clauses that are clearly present in primary legislation) to permanently destroy the data and systems being built via AS App at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

6. The AS App must not in any way be made mandatory by government or private actors;

7. Among other things, the focus must be on assuring the public that these are temporary interventions which will not devolve into permanent surveillance and monitoring systems.

II. For legality

1. Suitable legislation is required aim to hold the Union and State governments and private actors accountable for leakage or any inappropriate use of App data during epidemics and communicable disease outbreaks.

2. Under this, governments may only access patient data through hospital records, and must preserve patient anonymity.

3. These frameworks should be solely under the control of public health institutions.

III. For necessity: The government must establish:

1. The contextual necessity of the new technological interventions like the AS App which monitors people‟s movements since this is already being done by other actors (like telecom service providers).;

2. Grounds for treating the existing government databases, such as those maintained by ICMR and other existing surveillance mechanisms and hospital records as inadequate for the current purposes of responding to the pandemic

3. The expected advantage of interventions for collection of health and related information is collected, the actual technical effectiveness of the interventions itself, and a detailed cost-benefit/privacy impact analysis to evaluate risks before rolling out such Apps

4. Necessity as a dynamic construct, and that it is embedded through the life cycle of the AS programme. Within it there is a need for continual review of the programme as regards principles of transparency and accountability.

IV. Oversight Structures and Processes

1. The required legislation must create independent institutions for oversight separated from the political executive.

2. Towards this end, the agencies/institutions concerned should publish periodic reports informing the public if, and to what extent, the App is augmenting the Government’s response in treating and containing the spread of Covid-19. Based on such feedback loops, these institutions should be empowered to make decisions for course correction or even discontinuation of the programme itself, and the permanent destruction of the systems created.

AIDWA and AIPSN to Launch Joint Campaign Against Misinformation around COVID-19 : From Newsclick

Read the newsclick story here

‘Under cover of the epidemic, attempts are being made by the Sangh Parivar to bolster socially conservative values, communal prejudices and patriarchal notions.’

The All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) and the All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) will hold a joint campaign against the various superstitions and alleged cures which have been peddled for COVID-19, beginning July 23.

The campaign will kick off on Thursday, the death anniversary of Dr. Lakshmi Sahgal, a freedom-fighter and one of the founding members of AIDWA. Its last day, August 20, was the date on which anti-superstition campaigner Dr. Narendra Dabholkar was murdered by right wing obscurantist forces,” the campaign note said.

The campaign is being launched at a time when solutions like banging plates and untested ayurvedic medicines are being touted as inhibitors or a cure for the novel coronavirus, vaccines for which are under development in various countries, including India.

“Many traditionalist practices which have no proven impact on COVID-19 are being advocated as cures or as having preventive properties. Under cover of the epidemic, attempts are being made by the Sangh Parivar to bolster socially conservative values, communal prejudices and patriarchal notions. This must be resisted unitedly by progressive and democratic forces,” the joint-campaign note said.

The note added that governments, except for Kerala, resorted to “knee-jerk” reactions and a “badly implemented” lockdown to contain COVID-19, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the way in exhorting citizens to clap and light diyas to contain the spread of the virus.

The organisations mention that the prescribed remedies included “a number of home remedies like drinking warm water, standing in the sun, growing certain plants at home and so on. Such untested beliefs gained considerable popularity until, under pressure from scientists and people’s organizations and movements, public messaging became more coherent and science-based.”

The note said that such ‘methods of treatment’ have been allowed to foster even by government representatives and spokespersons of the BJP. Such remedies also included Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali coming up with an alleged cure for COVID-19.

The organisations also mention that questionable practices have been adopted by people in states like Rajasthan, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Telangana. Citing attempts made by the right-wing to label the Tablighi Jamaat as a ‘super-spreader’ in the initial days of the COVID-19 fight, the note said that “any rational and unbiased person would understand that the problem is not with the particular religion, but with the practices adopted. Here obscurantist forces are deliberately fanning and spreading communal prejudice, while at the same time devaluing science and rational thought and distracting everyone from governments’ responsibility to provide quality medical care.”

“The campaign would resist attempts by the government and obscurantist forces to take us backwards, and instead uphold the values of secularism, gender justice, critical thinking and scientific temper, all of which are essential for building a forward-looking, democratic society,” the note added.

Joint campaign by AIPSN-AIDWA: Science, not superstition, will help us tackle Covid-19

Science, not superstition, will help us tackle Covid-19.

Background note for a nation-wide AIDWA- AIPSN  campaign

 

Read here the campaign note in English , in Hindi 

Read here the Newsclick story on the joint campaign

 

On 23rd July 2020, All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) is commemorating the eighth death anniversary of Captain Lakshmi Sahgal, the revolutionary freedom fighter and tireless campaigner for progressive ideals, democratic rights, gender justice, and an upholder of the scientific outlook throughout her life. She was one of the founding members of AIDWA in 1981, and played a crucial role in taking the organization into the Hindi heartland. As a doctor based in Kanpur, UP, her clinic was a nodal centre for the organization, attracting women seeking medical help and unable to afford it; as well as a site for interaction and meetings of activists. Fortunate were the thousands of babies delivered there, as the parents did not have to worry about becoming impoverished in the process!

 

The All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) comprising 37 OrganizatioWwAns all over India, joins AIDWA in remembering and celebrating the enormous contributions of Dr. Lakshmi Sahgal. Significantly, she played a leading role in the founding of the Network in 1987 and was a champion of the battle against obscurantism, and for promotion of scientific temper.

 

The life and work of Dr. Lakshmi Sahgal assumes even greater relevance during the on-going Covid-19 epidemic during which obscurantist forces are playing on the fears of the people, particularly women, to spread superstitions and pseudo-scientific beliefs. . Many traditionalist practices which have no proven impact on Covid-19 are being advocated as cures or as having preventive properties. Under cover of the epidemic, attempts are being made by the Sangh Parivar to bolster socially conservative values, communal prejudices and patriarchal notions. This must be resisted unitedly by  progressive and democratic forces.

 

The message of science

The Covid-19 pandemic hit India in January 2020, and presented a challenge in the early days even to public health experts, doctors and scientists who were still learning about the novel Corona Virus. The Central Government and most State Governments, with the notable exception of Kerala as recognized worldwide,  were quite late in putting together a  coherent, rational understanding and communicating it effectively to the people. A knee-jerk  and badly implemented lock down, dramatic gestures like lighting diyas, clapping, hands, etc, initiated by none other than the PM himself, did not help matters.

 

Not surprisingly, as people desperately sought relief and protection from Covid-19, all kinds of myths and beliefs proliferated to fill the gaps. These included a number of home remedies like drinking warm water, standing in the sun, growing certain plants at home and so on. Such untested beliefs gained considerable popularity until, under pressure from scientists and people’s organizations and movements, public messaging became more coherent and science-based. AIPSN and other organizations of scientists, doctors and public health experts have been at the forefront of informing the public about the correct do’s-and-don’ts related to Covid-19 derived from WHO and ICMR guidelines and expert opinion. A number of popular practices  and home remedies gain acceptance as remedies because in 80% of cases the disease is self-limiting and the patient recovers without much intervention. .

The challenge meanwhile is to stop obscurantist forces and vested interests from using the uncertainty which still prevails, to spread their ideology, and to make their profits. The promotion of do-it-yourself home remedies or traditionalist treatments combine with misleading messages that “no treatment is available for COVID 19” and to distract from the governments failures to provide affordable quality medical care through rapid expansion of public health services. Although there is as yet no curative allopathic medicine, the scientific and medical communities have learned much about the virus and its effects, and are applying this knowledge in testing and treatment of Covid-19, especially in hospital settings with or without oxygen or ventilator support. Further, the search for definitive treatments and vaccines for prevention continues with emphasis on scientific validation especially through clinical trials so as to ensure safety and efficacy.  This isthe scientific approach. Unfortunately, some treatments are pushed even within modern medicine, cutting short scientific procedures, by corporate interests and their supporters in positions of power or influence, motivated by greed for profits or misplaced national pride. The undue haste in pressurizing hospitals to unrealistically accelerate clinical trials of a vaccine candidate, perhaps just to enable a triumphant announcement from the red fort on Independence Day, is a case in point, thwarted only by concerted opposition by the scientific and medical communities and informed public opinion.

Countering pseudo remedies and false propaganda

Some false remedies and fake claims take the form of peddling Covid “cures” or “treatments” in the name of Ayurvedic, homeopathic or other traditional formulations. None of these have any foundation even within these traditions, nor have they been subject to any scientific trials. Yet many such claims have been allowed to propagate. Even some Ministers at the Centre and in several States have made such claims. When the Union Health Minister or leading Government spokespersons were challenged on such claims, they have shied away from outright debunking them, instead saying they may be the “personal beliefs” of those Ministers or leaders.

 

The atrocious and brazen claim of a supposed Ayurvedic “cure” from Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali conglomerate emerged from this trend. The formulation from the Sangh Parivar-linked, politically well-connected Baba was all set for commercial launch based on  spurious “clinical trials,” when a public outcry by scientists, doctors and informed citizens forced the  Health and AYUSH Ministries to debunk this claim and even declare readiness to invoke the law against “magical cures and remedies.” Nevertheless, many so-called immune-boosters and other concoctions to supposedly help people fight-off Covid-19 continue to be propagated, cleverly taking care only not to use the word “cure!”

 

Pseudo-scientific claims have got validated because the party in power and supporting social forces have gone along with such notions. The Prime Minister’s calls for people to come to balconies or doorsteps and clang vessels, and later to shine torches or light lamps, to express support for doctors and health workers, were followed by twitter storms and social media posts claiming that India’s anti-Covid lamps were seen from space by NASA, or that “powerful radiations” or “vibrations” from these public displays would destroy the Corona Virus! No efforts were made by any Government or Sangh Parivar leader to contradict any of these fantastic claims. (Suffice it to say that the virus continues to spread alarmingly!) These kind of claims are being used not just to magnify the PM’s “superpowers,” but also to undermine the influence of science, rationality and critical thinking in society.

The Sangh Parivar and linked forces have also used the Covid19 pandemic to spread communal poison. One highly regrettable mass religious gathering in Nizamuddin, which acted as a superspreader, was used systematically over several months to demonize a particular religious minority as the major cause behind the pandemic. This was carried forward to stigmatize the entire community by spreading false rumours that positive cases from this gathering were deliberately spitting on others to spread the virus, or that buying vegetables from vendors belonging to this community was dangerous etc. The simple fact is, as science teaches us, that it is not the religion that matters but that there was a large gathering, with no physical distancing or other precautions being taken. Indeed, a recent occurrence at arguably the most popular temple in the country where large numbers of priests and devotees have been infected, sharply underlines this fact.

 

The Sangh parivar and linked forces have been utilizing social media to propagate superstitions, communal, traditionalist and obscurantist beliefs in a big way, which have to be countered, through powerful media campaigns of our own based on science.

 

Unmasking the use of religion to reinforce patriarchy. 

The other dangerous development is the invocation of supposed religious beliefs to reinforce obscurantist views and customs, especially by giving it a gender twist, with the virus being personized as an angry goddess. Observations made by AIDWA activists from different states provide some disturbing instances of this growing trend.

In Rajasthan, some well-known temples were surreptitiously opened despite the government’s ban on opening places of worship, by spreading rumours that the doors of the temple had opened “by themselves” and people, especially women, should offer prayers there to “placate the Corona virus.” Women have been told to dip their hands in kumkum water, or in cow dung in UP, and put their imprints on the walls of their homes to pacify “Corona Mai (Devi).”        In parts of Bihar, women are being prompted to go to nearby rivers, dress up and carry sindoor, bindi, sweets etc and take a dip just as they would during Chhat Puja, to appease an angry “Corona mai.” In some places, women get “possessed” and exhort “Corona mai” to go away. Unfortunately, it is observed that women from Dalit and OBC families are especially influenced to act in this manner. The idea of an angry “Corona goddess” is also being propagated in Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

Such notions of an angry or dangerous Goddess who must be appeased have been witnessed earlier too in India. Small pox was associated with female Goddesses, for example Mariamma in Tamil Nadu, and the pox itself was known as “Mata/ Amma/Ammai etc,” as chicken pox, measles etc are often termed even today. Part of this derives from ancient quasi-religious beliefs but also stem from deep-rooted patriarchal culture and ideologies ascribing evil, dangerous and power-hungry characteristics to women as witches, daayin etc.

In Telangana, pro-Sangh Parivar forces, often led by women, are leading “prabhat pheris” or dawn marches, propagating the idea that the Covid epidemic has struck because women have stopped performing pujas and other sanskari or traditional practices, and calling on them to restart them so as to drive away the Corona Virus. The intention is clearly to reinforce traditional patriarchal culture with a subservient role chalked out for women within the lakshman rekha drawn around the home.

In Odisha, pro-Sangh Parivar outfits have been campaigning that temples should not have been closed, and that the Supreme Court did not permit the Rath Yatra because it is pro-Muslim and pro-Christian! In fact, places of worship of almost all religious denominations have been kept closed by the respective religious institutions themselves and by government guidelines.  Where this has not happened, or has happened without observance of physical distancing and hand-hygiene, it has resulted in Covid positive cases spreading from such gatherings. Any rational and unbiased person would understand that the problem is not with the particular religion, but with the practices adopted. Here obscurantist forces are deliberately fanning and spreading communal prejudice, while at the same time devaluing science and rational thought and distracting everyone from governments’ responsibility to provide quality medical care.

In this context, AIDWA and AIPSN would launch joint campaigns starting from 23 July 2020 to combat propagation of superstitions and irrational beliefs by obscurantist forces. We will take inspiration from great fighters like Captain Lakshmi Sahgal, to arm people with science as against superstition, and to demand that the scientific temper enshrined in the Constitution be widely promoted. The campaign would resist attempts by the government and obscurantist forces to take us backwards , and instead uphold the values of secularism, gender justice, critical thinking and scientific temper, all of which are essential for building a forward-looking, democratic society.

 

The Joint AIDWA-AIPSN Campaign would be conducted throughout the country from 23rd July 2020 at least till the National Scientific Temper Day on August 20, the black day on which anti-superstition campaigner Dr.Narendra Dabholkar was murdered by right wing obscurantist forces.