Among the larger states in India, sub -interpretation in countries such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh was particularly pronounced. In these regions, the number of reports reported by Covid-19 was a fraction of the actual loss of life, which was most likely caused by pandemic.

Published on May 10, 2025 | 2:24 p.m. ⚊ Updated May 10, 2025 | 2:29 p.m.

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Summary: The actual toll fee of Covid-19 is probably far higher than the official figures. An analysis of excess mortality draws a dark picture that shows that the country may have lost far more life than recognized in state records. The major deviation of the under -reporting in the States also underlines the challenges in data acquisition, the death registration and certification of the cause of death.

India has passed the top value of Covid-19, but the numbers continue to increase from infections, but from unanswered questions.
In 2021 alone, India registered more than 21 Lakh more deaths than before pandemic, with astonishing 26% risen around 2020. However, official deaths of Covid-19 make up only a fraction of this increase, which is caused by serious concerns about the massive underrising of the true great that the virus has been received by the country.
The official official of the state of Covid-19, which is until May 2025, is around 5.33,665. However, this number is a fraction of the actual deaths caused by pandemic.
The government recently published the report on the medical certification of the cause of the death 2021, which indicates that the overall death in 2021 only increased over 21 LAKH compared to pre-Pandemic level. Nevertheless, only five Lakh by Covid-19 are officially attributed, which shows massive under-reporting on the pandemic deaths across the country.
The total covid 19 death victim since the beginning of pandemic was only 5.2% of the total deaths recorded in 2021.
This discrepancy, which varies in the states, indicates that India's actual COVID-19 death number was probably far higher than the official figures. Some countries, especially in the north and West Indies, showed significant sub-report, with the official deaths missing millions of human lives that were lost by pandemic.
In a typical, non -pandemic year, the number of deaths in India increases only around 1–2% per year. This small increase is due to gradual population growth and demographic changes such as aging, but is often compensated for by improving health care and falling mortality rates.
Significantly higher increases – such as the deaths of 26% registered in 2021 – are abnormal and typically signal extraordinary events such as pandemics or disasters. Between 2007 and 2019, the average annual deaths in India was between 8.1 and 8.6 million, with an average of around 8.35 million deaths per year.
In a report by the World Health Organization published in 2022, the number of “excess” deaths in around 47 LAKH were included in India 2020 and 2021, almost ten times the official Indian figure of 4.8 Lakh for two years.
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Discrepance in the main countries
Among the larger states in India, sub -interpretation in countries such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh was particularly pronounced. In these regions, the number of reports reported by Covid-19 was a fraction of the actual loss of life caused by the pandemic.
For example, Madhya Pradesh recorded an increase of 178,000 deaths compared to 2020 in 2021. However, only 10,788 deaths were attributed to Covid-19, which means that the official Covid 19-Maut was approximately 65 times lower than the entire excess deaths.
Similarly, 478,682 additional deaths were recorded in Uttar Pradesh in 2021, but only 23,743 deaths were officially connected to Covid-19. This was a 56.9 × subcount, which shows how many deaths were not classified or were due to other causes.
These discrepancies were not isolated cases: they reflect a more comprehensive topic of the understatement and bad documentation, a reality with which many parts of India are faced with, especially during the devastating second wave of Covid-19 in 2021.
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The South Indian picture
In the southern part of the country, the numbers in the states were very different.
Kerala, which was often recognized for its relatively transparent governance, showed a higher level of accuracy in his reporting. During the state a significant increase in deaths in 2021 with 339,648 death-in-depth increase of 35.3% compared to 2020 lag the total number of deaths on Covid-19 at 72.139.
This meant that COVID-19 deaths made a considerable proportion of the total excess deaths that made up 21.2% of deaths in 2021. Kerala's transparency in the death certificate and health reporting was obvious, and her handling of the crisis is still one of the few examples in which the complete toll of pandemics was reflected in official records.
In Karnataka, a state that also has a strong health infrastructure, the situation was different. The registered deaths of Karnataka in 2021 were 666,402, which marked an increase of 20.8% compared to 2020.
But only 40,411 deaths were officially assigned to COVID-19, which indicates a 16.5-fold subsequent device. This discrepancy emphasized that Karnataka was one of the worst states, but a significant gap between the reported deaths of Covid-19 and the actual mortality, especially during the peak of the second wave.
The situation in Tamil Nadu was similarly worrying. The state recorded 875,012 deaths in 2021, an increase of 27.3% compared to 2020. Despite the large number of excess deaths, 38,086 were officially attributed to Covid-19 by these since the beginning of the pandemic. This showed that the state's covid 19-death official was about 23 times lower than the actual number of excess deaths, which indicates that many pandemic deaths were either underriad or misplaced.
In Andhra Pradesh, a state with over 50 million inhabitants, the situation was just as worrying. While the official number of death was 556.102 in 2021, an increase of 22.2%, the total molema of Covid-19 at 14,733, was less than 3% of the increase in deaths. This put the under -reported factor of the state at 37.75 ×, one of the largest among South Indian countries.
The most striking was that Telangana emerged for his very low attribution of deaths to Covid-19. Although the state officially connected 234,425 deaths in 2021 only 4,111 deaths with COVID-19 compared to the last year. This gave the state a 57.01 × subcount, one of the highest in India, which reflects serious gaps in data acquisition and health reporting.
What does this mean for India's health policy?
The actual toll fee of Covid-19 is probably far higher than the official figures. An analysis of excess mortality draws a dark picture that shows that the country may have lost far more life than recognized in state records. The major deviation of the under -reporting in the States also underlines the challenges in data acquisition, the death registration and certification of the cause of death.
These discrepancies raise several questions about pandemic readiness in India, health infrastructure and official transparency. The pandemic resulted in massive gaps in the persecution of deaths in India. Many human lives may have been lost due to the lack of access to health care, the sub -reporting of cases and miscalculation of the causes of death.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).