When the sons of a street food vendor refused to arrange his cremation apparently because they were too “busy”, a cinema owner at whose theatre the man used to sell snacks 14 years ago stepped forward to help.
After a policeman died of suspected coronavirus infection and even hospital staff wouldn’t touch the body, two journalists donned PPE kits and carried it on their shoulders to an ambulance.
Odisha last week saw three instances of neighbours or strangers arranging funerals for dead patients shunned by all — proof that if crises bring out the worst in some, they reveal the best in others.
It was also proof that authorities need to spell out a protocol for the last rites of dead Covid-19 patients — a gap the Odisha government eventually filled on Saturday evening.
Vendor Premananda Sahu, 64, had died on Friday after three days in hospital in Deogarh town with complications including kidney problems, paralysis and a brain tumour. He had tested negative for Covid-19.
Yet, when neighbours rang up his two sons who live at village Gamlei, about 70km away, they “refused” to come, said local resident and district Bar association secretary Siddheswar Guru. “They said they were busy. They later switched off their mobiles.”
It was left to Khireswar Pradhan, 62, owner of a local cinema that had closed in 2006, to take the initiative.
“When my cinema was running, Sahu had a snacks bar there. We had become close; he would sometimes run errands for me,” Pradhan said. “Even after my cinema closed, I kept in touch with him because I valued the relationship.”
Guru said: “Pradhan lit the pyre and performed the rituals.”
In Ganjam, two journalists on Saturday carried the body of assistant sub-inspector Rabindranath Behera out of Kodala hospital after learning it was lying on the floor since his death on Friday evening, shortly after his admission with a cold and fever. Even his family did not turn up.
As news channels reported the journalists’ act, the district administration — which had conferred every cop with the title of “Covid warrior” — stepped in and announced it would organise the policeman’s cremation with full state honours.
“Paying homage to our frontline Covid warrior ASI R.N. Behera, who succumbed to Covid-19 in line of duty,” Ganjam superintendent of police Brajesh Kumar Rai tweeted along with a photo of the body being accompanied by district officials.
Asked why the body had been kept on the hospital floor, Rai cited “medical formalities”.
Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange tweeted that it was “for the purpose of inquest” that the body had been “kept on the pucca floor”.
“We never compromise with the dignity of Covid warriors,” he wrote, reeling off a list of civil and police officials who “were present at the Community Health Centre, Kodala”.
However, sources said the officials had rushed to the hospital only after the journalists had taken the body out and TV channels had flashed the news.
Behera later tested positive.
On Tuesday, when no one had turned up to cremate a retired headmaster who had tested negative at Sordaa in Ganjam, four journalists arranged his last rites.
“All his sons and daughters live outside. Local people were reluctant to touch the body. So we came forward,” said reporter Sankar Prasad Pradhan.
On Saturday, the state government said district and civic authorities would perform the funerals of all Covid-19 dead, with family members allowed to be present.