Once again the criminal negligence of the fascist government has claimed innocent lives of the common masses, this time in the ‘cleanest city’ of Indore. Indore faces a severe health emergency as contaminated drinking water allegedly caused by sewage leakage triggered a diarrhoea and vomiting outbreak. This has resulted in at least 14 deaths and 200 patients admitted for treatment so far. By mid-December, residents of the Bhagirathpura locality noticed that their tap water looked discoloured and smelt foul. In fact, according to Indore Mayor himself, the locals have been complaining about the polluted water since 2024. According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 20 percent of sewage water is dumped untreated directly into the water supplies of Indore, while 80 percent of its sewers are under-utilized or blocked. No effective action was taken by the authorities and officials even after the locals repeatedly complained about poor water quality. Many locals were forced to use the contaminated water due to lack of alternatives, which resulted in the outbreak of waterborne diseases like diarrhoea, affecting thousands of residents. Laboratory reports confirm bacterial contamination which happened due to infrastructure lapses, resulting in sewage mixing with drinking water.

This incident is another example of how the government pays little-to-no heed to the lives of common people. When cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya was confronted by a journalist about the incident, he dismissed the question as ‘useless’ and used foul language on camera. At a time when people of his assembly constituency were dying and writhing in pain on hospital beds, Kailash Vijayvargiya was busy tweeting birthday wishes to Jyotiraditya Scindia, covering up the number of deaths and dismissing them as “natural deaths”. It must be remembered that after the strong public resentment against the government on the issue — where women of Bhagirathpura went upto the extent of forcing Kailash Vijayvargiya flee from their locality — the authorities have suspended the few low-level officials like Deputy Engineers and Assistant Engineers in order to pacify the anger of the people, while people like Kailash Vijayvargiya escape unscathed.

Clean water is a basic human right, and the fascist BJP government is depriving the masses of it at both the state and centre levels. This can be seen by the hazardous amount of uranium and other heavy metals found in Delhi’s groundwater. Talking about Madhya Pradesh in particular, according to a CAG report on water management in Bhopal and Indore published in 2019 — between 2013 and 2018, 4,481 water samples failed to meet drinking water standards. Only 56 percent of families in the two cities were given tap connections. As a result, around 3.62 lakh families in Bhopal and 5.33 lakh families in Indore were deprived of access to safe drinking water. Over the same period, nearly 5.45 lakh cases of waterborne illnesses were officially recorded.

If we investigate the roots of such problems, we will find that the criminal negligence of the fascist government and the profit-centric capitalist system are responsible for such systematic catastrophes whose effects are borne mainly by the poor and the toiling masses. On hand the BJP, along with its puppet media, doesn’t stop beating the trumpet of “Four Trillion Economy”, “Vikshit Bharat” and “Vishwaguru”. While, on the other hand, it cannot even provide basic necessities like clean air and water to its citizens. Its nothing short of an awful irony that 14 children died due to water pollution in a city which has been declared the “cleanest city of India” for eight consecutive years. It must also be remembered that BJP has won the Indore Lok Sabha seat for ten consecutive times since 1989. BJP has also ruled over the state continuously since 2003, barring only a 15 months period between 2018 and 2020 when Congress came to power. BJP, along with the entire machinery of Sangh Parivar, has utilized this period not to provide basic sanitation and health care services to the people of the state, but to convert the state into a laboratory of fascist politics. Footsoldiers of RSS organised in Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other lumpen organizations run amock, communalising the state — from lynching Muslims, racking up the issue “love jihad”, demolishing their homes and expelling them from market places to attacking the Christians for celebrating Christmas and on bogus “religious conversion” allegations.

The fascists in power use communal politics to divert the attention of the masses from their real issues. Madhya Pradesh features at the bottom quarter of almost every human development indicator. It is worth noting that Madhya Pradesh has the worst Infant Mortality Ratio (IMR) and the highest Mother Mortality Ratio (MMR) in the whole country. Official data acknowledges that Madhya Pradesh has over one million malnourished children, of whom nearly 1.36 lakh are classified as severely wasted. This places the state well above the national average: while severe and moderate malnutrition among children under five stood at 5.40% nationwide in April 2025, Madhya Pradesh recorded an alarming 7.79%. Anaemia further deepens this crisis. With 57% of women in the state suffering from anaemia, the health of future generations is compromised even before birth. Data from the Union government’s Nutrition Tracker App reveals that in May 2025, 45 of Madhya Pradesh’s 55 districts fell into the “red zone,” indicating that over 20% of children were underweight for their age. In October 2025, at least 24 children under the age of five died in Chhindwara and adjoining areas of the state due to the consumption of a contaminated cough syrup. The mismanagement in government hospitals in MP is evident from the fact that in September 2025, two newborn babies died after being bitten by rats in the government medical college in Indore, following which similar incidents of eat bites were reported from many hospitals across the state. In May 2025, six children suffering with Thalassemia were tested HIV positive due to infected blood transfusion. The apathy of the fascist regime towards public health of the citizens is not limited to Madhya Pradesh alone, but is a countrywide phenomena. Who can forget the charred bodies of seven babies burnt alive in the neo-natal ward of a private hospital in Delhi in May 2024!

Scientists for Society believes access to clean water and public healthcare are basic human rights and condemns the Madhya Pradesh government whose negligence has claimed many innocent lives. We demand an immediate and impartial inquiry on the matter and strict action against those responsible, including cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya. SFS also appeals to the people of Madhya Pradesh and the country to see through the communal fascist politics of RSS-BJP and unite on the real issues like education, employment, public health, sanitation, clean air and water.