Most of those injured and killed in the two-day communal riots in northeast Delhi were young men, according to data from Guru Teg Bahadur hospital, which received the highest number of casualties and injured. The hospital received 279 persons who were injured in the violence and 38 persons who were either brought dead or died during treatment.
The total death toll of the violence was 47 till Tuesday. Nearly 400 people were injured and taken to Jag Parvesh Chandra, Lok Nayak, and Max hospitals apart from GTB hospital.
Almost 60% of those injured in the violence were within the age between 20 and 40 years of age. Those injured were also predominantly men, with only 6 women being brought to the hospital.
“Usually, whenever there are disasters like this we see that it is the young men who are injured and killed. And, the data from the hospital substantiates that. Almost all the people who were brought to the hospital were men in their productive age,” said Dr Sunil Kumar, medical director of Guru Teg bahadur hospital.
Although the hospital could not provide a similar break-up of the 38 who died, the trend was similar, according to Dr Kumar. Only one woman, Akbari, 85, was among the dead.
There is a direct and an indirect impact of the deaths of young earning members of the family on the society, he said.
“Usually, when there is violence like this, we look at the direct impact – the 2D of death and disability. But, there is a larger indirect impact on the society; the debt and destruction of family. We have seen families go into debt for treatment or the last rites of their loved ones. The death of a young man also means it takes away one earning member of the family, in many cases the only one supporting the family,” Dr Kumar said.
After the violence died down, when a tally of the types of injuries was taken, the data shows the majority were blunt traumas resulting from stone pelting or beating with sticks. Around 67 of those injured were shot.
“Initially, we saw several firearm injuries and thought that maybe that was predominant. However, now that we have analysed the data we have realised that most of the patients came in with blunt trauma, around double the number of those who were shot,” said Dr Kumar.
Apart from that the hospital saw some burn injuries and a person with a drill bit inserted into the head.
