![]() ![]() I would want to have more ambulances and other vehicles so that I can do more, and contribute more to my dear cause.” And does his family not object? “My mother has always supported me. “It is a tough job, but we feel satisfaction in what we do. I have no inkling of politics and no urge to do something like that.” Singh and his team of around 20 people refuse to charge people for the work that they do, but many still end up contributing to his organisation. “But now I am completely devoted to my calling in life. Also, we have eight refrigerated mortuary boxes which were used during the final farewell ‘darshan’ of leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, IK Gujral, Arun Jaitley, and Sushma Swaraj.” For his living, Singh runs a business of property sale and purchase and financing, and previously he was also a local Delhi politician. “We have transported over 44,000 dead bodies in the hearse vans since we started our operations. So far, we have cremated/buried nearly 24,000 people since around 1995.” His organisation has a fleet of 18 vehicles, which includes ambulances and hearse vans. ![]() “Since then, I have been giving an honourable farewell to the poor and the marginalised, many of whom are unidentified bodies which are handed over to us by hospitals and police. ![]() It was then that he decided to set up the Shahid Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal. It breaks my heart,” Singh, who received a Padma Shri earlier this year for his social work, says. But the number of dead bodies that are arriving in the wake of the coronavirus strike has even shaken my spirit. “My organisation believes in giving a respectable farewell to the dead and we have been doing this for over two decades now. “I don’t want the virus to spread to my family members, though some have already been infected,” Singh – whose team wears PPE suits and uses safety kits and sanitisers - tells TOI as he speaks about how the scale of corona deaths has shattered him. Starting the day as early as 7AM, Singh – who runs a social-service organisation called ‘Shahid Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal’ in the Delhi-NCR area – nowadays ends the day in the parking lot of his house where he sleeps inside an ambulance that is used by his organisation during the day. PM bans flights from India amid infection fearsĪustralia banned flights from India last week amid rising coronavirus case numbers and fears of infection breaching hotel quarantine.NEW DELHI: Jitender Singh ‘Shunty’ has cremated more than 2,000 people – all strangers who needed a dignified farewell as their own feared contracting the dreaded coronavirus or the bodies were unidentified - since the outbreak of the deadly pandemic around one year back. We are constantly firefighting,” the head of the Madhukar Rainbow Children’s Hospital Dr Dinesh Kumar Chirla told the Indian Express daily. “Oxygen is a basic requirement of a hospital and a consistent supply has not been assured. ![]() The south Asian country’s cases have soared by around eight million since the end of March and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under growing pressure to take decisive action to reverse the surge.Ĭlinics in capital New Delhi have also sent urgent appeals for help. The bodies will continue coming in after India’s coronavirus caseload nears 20 million. Death is a part of life and it is nothing to be afraid of and this is why I am not scared of corona.” On COVID-19, he said: “After I started working here, I stopped being scared of death. “We work in a furnace we won’t be able to breathe in that suit.” He said workers were given masks and personal protective equipment but “we don’t wear it”. The remains of funeral pyres in New Delhi. RELATED: Haunting images of mass cremations amid virus crisis I drink two bottles of beer every day before coming to work.” “I don’t feel anything when I see a dead body,” he said. There are too many corpses.”Ī crematorium worker recently opened up about the process in an interview with VICE.Īshu Rai, 20, said he now accepts death after dealing with so many dead bodies. So, the overwhelming of crematoriums had also piled up miseries for their relatives and family members. “If one crematorium was receiving 20 bodies now the same receive more than 100 bodies. “Makeshift crematoriums are now being built in car parks and parks across the capital, and trees are being cut down for fuel, meaning the scars on the city are now physical, as well.” To have to, as I’m reading about, fight with fellow mourners for firewood or space. “It is unimaginable to be forced to rush through the moments of saying goodbye and letting go. Bodies need space for the fire to breathe at cremation. ![]()
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