PBS高端访谈:新冠期间,印度穷人处境艰难

JUDY WOODRUFF: India has reported more than one million COVID cases, a number exceeded only by the U.S. and Brazil. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the situation in Delhi. It's part of his series Agents for Change.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: These women are India's foot soldiers in the fight against the coronavirus, their job, to find and help those with symptoms. They are called accredited¹ social health activists³, or ASHA workers. In remote villages, in cramped⁴ urban slums, across India more than one million women like Bhagwan Devi and Kundan Devi fan out on foot each day. Until the pandemic, they would mostly check on pregnant women or see that children are up to date on their shots.

BHAGWAN DEVI, Accredited Social Health Activist² (through translator): Put your mask on.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Now they also have a more dangerous mission.

KUNDAN DEVI, Accredited Social Health Activist (through translator): We have to check for patients. We bring them oximeters, take their daily readings.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: This, they add, with little guidance or even protective gear from the authorities.

BHAGWAN DEVI (through translator): Masks. If masks are available, we get them. Otherwise, we have to buy our own. And gloves, if we want gloves, we're on our own.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Global health experts say ASHA workers are a key, but so far poorly utilized⁵ resource to help contain the coronavirus in a country struggling to emerge from a three-month lockdown. Traffic has been slowly returning to Delhi's streets and shops have begun to open. The crowds are much smaller than pre-COVID times, except in food markets. Here, social distancing is just not an option. Like much of urban India, this city is bracing⁶ itself. Hospitals across India have been overwhelmed with COVID cases. In Delhi, a temporary 500-bed overflow⁷ facility, with limited medical equipment, has been set up for people suffering COVID symptoms. There's also a new 10,000-bed quarantine center, the world's largest. Many of the city's 20 million residents live in crowded single-room spaces.

MANISH SISODIA, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister: Thirty percent of the people don't have spare rooms if they have COVID at their homes.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: I reached Manish Sisodia, Delhi's deputy chief minister.

MANISH SISODIA: For people who feel some…any discomfort⁸, even if they are in asymptomatic condition, they can be brought to these centers.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: As Delhi prepares for a surge in COVID cases, there's been little evidence of any surge in economic activity several weeks after the lockdown ended.

MAN (through translator): Sir, there's no work. There's just no work.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Across the city each morning, tradesmen wait at labor⁹ chowks, or exchanges, for employers or their agents to come by with work offers, usually in construction. Like the majority of workers in India's economy they are informal, or off the books, paid by the day. So no work means no pay.

MAN (through translator): I have three daughters. Our family is in a terrible situation. We get food from here and there. And I'm not alone. All poor people are in this situation.

RAJ PANJABI, CEO, Last Mile Health: The poor often suffer the worst because they have the least ability to gain access to basic essential services during those periods.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Raj Panjabi is a Harvard physician who also heads Last Mile Health, a group that serves hard-to-reach regions in developing countries. Panjabi says the government ended the lockdown to ease the extreme economic hardship, but it still doesn't test enough people for COVID and, critically, isn't properly tracing contacts of those who test positive.

RAJ PANJABI: Then, essentially¹⁰, one person goes on to infect three people. And if that scenario¹¹ plays out just 10 times, the first case will have led to more than 59,000 cases. But if any one of those first few patients was isolated¹², you dramatically stop the transmission rate.

MANISH SISODIA: Frankly¹³, it was hard to manage because, in India, systems are not online.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Besides not being online, he admits Delhi had a rough start. Test results took two to three days, allowing infections to spread. Testing capacity still lags far behind cities like New York, but it has quadrupled since the early days, with a fleet of mobile units testing some 25,000 people per day, and with quicker results.

MANISH SISODIA: Now you can get the result in maximum one hour. So, that is helping¹⁴.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: India's government is also touting¹⁵ an app that lets smartphone owners know of any nearby active COVID cases. The government says it's had 100 million downloads. The problem is, not everyone owns a smartphone, including many ASHA workers. They are officially classified as volunteers, so they get no benefits and a monthly stipend¹⁶ as low as 1,000 rupees, or $13.

BHAGWAN DEVI (through translator): I don't have the salary. I can buy gloves or pay the rent or feed myself. What do I do? We're scared, because, if they're positive, we have to touch their bodies. We can only hope that we don't become sick.

KUNDAN DEVI (through translator): For all the extra work with coronavirus, we get nothing. The 1,000 rupees we get, will that even buy medicines if I get sick?

RAJ PANJABI: We have neglected these front-line and community health workers. And, often, we have neglected women in the work force, especially poor women.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Dr. Panjabi says ASHA workers could be a huge asset, since they're ideally positioned to do contact tracing. But the reality on the ground is not that simple. ASHA workers have been attacked, or, more commonly, just ignored.

KUNDAN DEVI (through translator): Only yesterday, I was told: Don't come near the gate. Just leave as quickly as you can. I said: I will stand on the road. Just give me your name and phone number and tell me if this person came by or didn't come by. That's all you have to tell me. They wouldn't say anything.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Experts say, there's a pressing need for public education. Misinformation abounds¹⁷ about coronavirus and how it's spread, leading to social stigma¹⁸, or, as we found at the labor site, more immediate¹⁹ worries.

MAN (through translator): What do I think about coronavirus? I have nothing to eat.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: I will more likely die from hunger before I get coronavirus, he says. For the PBS NewsHour, with Rakesh Nagar in Delhi, this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1 accredited   

adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于

参考例句：

• The discovery of distillation is usually accredited to the Arabs of the 11th century. 通常认为，蒸馏法是阿拉伯人在11世纪发明的。
• Only accredited journalists were allowed entry. 只有正式认可的记者才获准入内。

2 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

3 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 cramped   

a.狭窄的

参考例句：

• The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤，但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
• working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作

5 utilized   

v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In the19th century waterpower was widely utilized to generate electricity. 在19世纪人们大规模使用水力来发电。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The empty building can be utilized for city storage. 可以利用那栋空建筑物作城市的仓库。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

7 overflow   

v.(使)外溢，(使)溢出；溢出，流出，漫出

参考例句：

• The overflow from the bath ran on to the floor.浴缸里的水溢到了地板上。
• After a long period of rain,the river may overflow its banks.长时间的下雨天后，河水可能溢出岸来。

8 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

11 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

12 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

13 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

14 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

15 touting   

v.兜售( tout的现在分词 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• He's been touting his novel around publishers for years. 他几年来一直到处找出版商兜售自己的小说。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Technology industry leaders are touting cars as a hot area for growth. 科技产业领袖吹捧为增长热点地区的汽车。 来自互联网

16 stipend   

n.薪贴；奖学金；养老金

参考例句：

• The company is going to ajust my stipend from this month onwards.从这一个月开始公司将对我的薪金作调整。
• This sum was nearly a third of his total stipend.这笔钱几乎是他全部津贴的三分之一。

17 abounds   

v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The place abounds with fruit, especially pears and peaches. 此地盛产水果，尤以梨桃著称。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• This country abounds with fruit. 这个国家盛产水果。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

19 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。