Odisha Good Samaritans to perform funeral rituals of abandoned COVID-19 victims

After six months, Siddhant Panda, a resident of Odisha’s Sundargarh district, plans to pay a go to to Prayagraj for performing ‘asthi visarjan’, a Puucho ritual of immersing and scattering the ashes and leftover bones of the departed.

Mr. Panda has not misplaced anybody in his household or any relative in his prolonged household however he stated he was morally-bound to bid a ultimate adieu to some whose our bodies have been abandoned.

Since final yr, Mr. Panda and his 5 buddies have been serving to cremate COVID-19 victims after their family abandoned the our bodies at Sundargarh. A fortnight in the past, Sundargarh was one of the worst-hit districts within the second wave of the pandemic.

“After cremation, while some relatives turned up to collect ashes and leftover bones from cremation ground, the unknown fear of catching the virus from ashes kept many people at bay. They did not even show up to collect ashes and bones,” rued Mr. Panda, 48, who runs a drug retailer for dwelling.

These folks, popularly referred to as ‘mashani bandhi’ (buddies in crematorium), diligently collected leftover bones and ashes of the victims in an earthen pot which was wrapped up in a bit of material. Every pot has the identify of the sufferer and telephone quantity of family written on it.

“As of now, people have not collected ashes and bones of 56 victims,” stated Mr. Panda.

For previous 20 years, he and his buddies — Kamlesh Nathani, Sisir Behera, Manoj Tripathy, Bijay Hota and Deben Sahu, all Sundargarh-based established businessmen – have been volunteering within the disposal of unidentified our bodies by taking day out of their busy schedule.

Ever for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic struck, their gesture of serving to cremate our bodies appeared to have grow to be full-time job.

‘310 cremated since last year’

“We have helped cremate 310 COVID-19 victims since last year. While 78 bodies were disposed of in the first wave, the second wave saw a dramatic rise in deaths. As many as 232 bodies have been cremated at Sundargarh alone,” stated Mr. Nathani.

Relatives usually request these volunteers to immerse the ashes and bones within the river water.

“We cannot do that since there is standing government instruction that these earthen pots cannot be disturbed for 90 days. We have decided to do en masse ‘asthi visarjan’ at Prayagraj after six months when the COVID-19 situation improves. We are not taking a pie from government for cremating the bodies. If we abandon these pots, we would be disrespecting departed souls,” stated Mr. Panda.

The Good Samaritans stated the names of each sufferer can be recited throughout immersion of ashes at Prayagraj and full Puucho rituals can be adopted. All six of them determined to contribute cash from their pockets for the trigger. “In the second wave, we have ourselves lit funeral pyres of at least 70 out of 232 COVID-19 victims this year. And we are morally-bound to complete the funeral rituals,” they stated.