 Welcome to Dispatches from India, a brand new show from People's Dispatch. Here we bring you the latest news and stories from India. It's been more than two weeks since the Indian capital city of New Delhi witnessed riots targeting India's minority Muslim community. More than 50 people were killed, while right-wing mobs went on a rampage destroying homes and mosques and looting and burning commercial establishments. The police in the city were accused of being mute spectators and in some cases even active collaborators during the carnage which lasted for several days. Hundreds were forced to leave their homes and take refuge either in the relief camps or in the relatives' houses. Let's take a look at the stories of these victims. You can see for yourself the condition of this house. All of our belongings have gone down. There's nothing left that we can use. We haven't found a place to live yet either. We can't even afford to live somewhere on rent right now. Even the rent has increased. It has doubled. Our children are facing difficulties in going to school. They don't have uniforms. People are not able to go to the work because their vehicles have burnt down. There's nothing left. The way we used to live here before, we had a nice home. It was well-built. We had belongings. But after this incident, we have lost everything. We have to begin our lives again from zero. The days riots started here, all of us women and children were put in one building. And when the riots began, the lowest floor of the building was set on fire. They were throwing gas cylinders and other such things. The flames had even reached the second floor, which was terrifying for us. When we looked outside, there was only smoke and everything seemed to be burning. Somehow we saved our lives and reached the roof. And we saw there was stone building from all the sides. There were many women, kids and even the elderly with us. We somehow jumped across roofs to make our way to safety that day. We had to run through narrow lanes and we were given hardly any time to escape and save ourselves. In this chaos, people were scared for their lives. They were stumbling and falling. The rioters who were present were hitting the people with sticks and chanting Jai Sri Ram. Somehow we escaped and the place we are living in now, that place has become like a detention center. In one room, there are four, five families living. People are not able to get basic necessities. The items that come as part of the relief efforts do not reach everyone. This week, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 to be a pandemic. It called on countries to strengthen the response against the disease, which has now spread to more than 120 countries. Meanwhile, at the erstwhile epicenter of the virus outbreak Wuhan in China, cases have dropped drastically. The unprecedented and coordinated response by the government of China, along with its socialist health care policies, discipline and dedication of the Chinese people, has finally managed to curtail the spread of the virus. In this section, we bring you the story of another well-coordinated fight against the coronavirus from the southern Indian state of Kerala. Take a look. After 14 people have been tested positive in Kerala, in the second phase of spread of the disease, the state government on Tuesday announced a major clampdown on all public functions across the state to curtail the further spread of the virus. Further, all schools, colleges and movie theatres have been closed. So far, Kerala had seen 17 cases of COVID-19, including three who have already recovered and were discharged from the hospitals last month. The state government is also going to make arrangements with the help of ward members and health workers to track the arrival of people from the affected regions. In urban areas, the help of resident associations will be made use of. International travellants arriving at airports' ports have been directed to disclose their country or city of origin and travel history. There is a strict warning from the government that any attempt to evade screening at the time of arrival or height symptoms would be considered as violation of the law. According to the state government, the rural child care programme Anganwadi will be delivering the mid-day meal to the houses. The food for children who go to Anganwadi should be delivered at their homes. For families under quarantine, their livelihood gets shut off. We have decided that the food for them should be delivered. The cabinet has taken a decision on this. District collectors have been given necessary instructions during the video conference on Tuesday. We have to manufacture more hand sanitizers. The case with the masks is similar. Mask is not a sufficient preventive measure, but there is a lot of demand for it. So, we are exploring the means to manufacture more masks. Naturally, at this point, there is a likelihood of internet being used more with people staying at homes more. So, we intend to coordinate to resolve bandwidth and connectivity issues. The southern Indian state, which is ruled by a communist alliance, has a robust public healthcare system compared to many other states. There are over 2,700 government medical institutions in the state with 330 beds per 100,000 population, the highest in the country. Kerala is also investing in health information systems to compile household-level data designed to help with population health management and surveillance of communicable diseases. This has helped in extensive contact tracing of anyone who has been tested positive for coronavirus or anyone who has recent history of travel to affected countries. In 2018, the state had witnessed another virus outbreak caused by Nipah virus. The coordinated response by the government and the state machinery against this virus led to its containment within a month. Kerala's response to the Nipah virus outbreak is considered to be the role model for fight against a virus outbreak. The efficient response by the state government and health officials received praise from various quarters. Our last story for today is from Alagamalai village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The temple administration in the village controlled by upper caste Hindus constructed a barbed wire untouchability fence to prevent the members of the Dalit community, the formerly untouchable caste, from utilizing the temple grounds. The fence is restricting children of a nearby primary school from accessing the playground. Though India claims to be a global power, the issue of caste continues to claim lives as well as affect millions in the country. To this day, various forms of discrimination continues both in the cities and villages against those belonging to the so-called lower caste. In response to this, across the country, powerful movements have emerged against caste-based discrimination and such atrocities. Tamil Nadu is a state which has seen a number of caste-based crimes as well as powerful struggles against such atrocities. Here is a report by NewsClick from the Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu. As per the 2014 map, the temple boundary is shown in red and the empty grounds surrounding the temple is shaded in yellow. The residential area is shown with blue boundary. But in 2018, a concrete road was laid from the residential area to the main road. Then, much to the shock of the residents, a barbed wire fence came up, cutting across the newly laid road. This untouched ability fence have two gates, closed by 6 p.m. every day, hindering the movement of people returning from jobs and children from schools. This Alagumalai village is located in Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu. A wire fence was erected in 2018 near the residents of Dalits to prevent them from coming to the temple by the temple management. Then, the people there took up the issue with the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front and asked for our help. We found the fact the fence was put up to promote and protect the temple. We are not allowed to walk on the path near the temple. If we walk there, then it is considered unclean. So, they say that you avoid this road since there is another road for you and you don't have to come this way. The isolated us based on our castes. We don't know what to do. When we all protested, the police locked us up in a hall. They installed the wire fence at that time there. We couldn't do anything. People have been protesting continuously for the last one year to remove this fence. Including youth, everybody here is clear that they want the fence to be removed. We, the TNUEF, consider that this wire fence is a mark of untouchability in the Tirupur district. That's all we have today in this episode of Dispatches from India. See you next week.