Sundargarh: Not only has the Covid-19 claimed human lives but it has also killed humanity and social values with many tragic scenes of people abandoning their friends and relatives in fear of infection even after death.
Incidents of people even abandoning the ashes of their close ones at crematoriums across the country is yet another example of an abnormal thing that people of a sane mind would probably never do.
With families of the infected dead not coming forward to collect their remains, ashes of around 56 people are lying unclaimed at the Rani Bagicha cremation site in Sundargarh.
After the second wave of Covid-19, there has been a daily rush at the Rani Bagicha cremation site. Around 250 people have been cremated there in the last two months.
While some family members come to light the funeral pyre, some do not turn up even to pay their last respects to their relatives. On such occasions, the Masani Bandhu volunteers conduct the last rites of the deceased persons.
While the Masani Bandhu volunteers perform the last rites of the bodies, they are worried as many families do not turn up to collect the ashes for the immersion rituals.
The remains of 56 people are currently lying in the crematorium. In Hinduism, it is customary to perform the ‘Asthi Bisarjan’ after a relative’s funeral. However, family members have not come forward in fear that the virus will be transmitted through the ashes.
In view of this, the Masani Bandhu volunteers have decided to organise a mass immersion ritual of the unclaimed ashes in the Sangam at Prayagraj.
Refuting the fear that Covid-19 is transmitted through ashes, Secretary of All Odisha Private Medical Establishment Forum (AOPMEF), Dr. Indramani Jena, said that there is no scientific proof in this regard. No virus can survive after the body of the victim has turned into ashes.
