Victims Who Died Due To COVID-19 In India Receive IDR 9.5 Million In Compensation Per Person

Illustration of a COVID-19 vaccination center in India. (Wikimedia Commons/Sumita Roy Dutta)

JAKARTA - India's High Court on Monday approved the government's decision regarding compensation of USD 670 or approximately IDR 9.5 million for each case of death due to COVID-19 given to the family of the deceased.

The payout amounted to more than $300 million, based on India's current death toll, according to a CNN tally as quoted October 5. As of Monday, India had recorded 448.997 deaths from COVID-19, according to the Ministry of Health.

Earlier, after a series of hearings, India's Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement in September offering compensation to family members of all COVID-19 victims, including those who died by suicide upon hearing of the diagnosis.

Victims who died within 30 days of diagnosis would be eligible, according to the court's ruling, as well as people who were hospitalized longer than that and later died.

The court ruled that no state can immediately refuse compensation, even if a person's death certificate does not list COVID-19 as the cause of death, according to advocate Gaurav Bansal who filed the original petition.

In contested cases, the complaints-handling committee will examine the records of the deceased patient and make a call within 30 days, Bansal added.

"All relevant hospitals where patients are admitted and provided care, must provide all necessary treatment documents etc., to the family members of the deceased, as and when requested," the ruling reads.

"According to the law, this is not alms. This is the legal right of the person claiming compensation," Bansal told CNN last week.

An indemnity committee has been assigned to deal with any and all issues related to the cause of death of a family member.

Please note, this program allows next of kin to claim compensation retroactively, and will continue to be awarded for deaths that may occur in the future phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.