The Unheard Plight Of Funeral Workers Amid COVID-19
Sarita
The pandemic has already taken thousands of lives and it’s moving steadily and with haste to satiate its hunger. The tragedy is that no cure has been discovered as yet. The images of masses of dead bodies in coffins from Italy and Spain are enough to send chills down one’s spine. What if the same happened in India? However, have you ever thought who those people are who work day and night to provide a proper funeral to those piles of dead bodies? No doubt, health workers, along with policemen, are providing their services for humankind, but aren’t the services of these funeral workers also crucial for us? We have heard stories of people of all shades of lives, their pain and anxieties, because of the lockdown. But nobody pays much heed to India’s funeral workers. This article finds its way. Read on.
The current coronavirus pandemic is more than just a health emergency all over the world. As on one hand, when it had sent shock waves of pain, grief and death, on the other, the pandemic had further broadened the massive inequalities that already existed in society. Marginalised sections of the society have been the easiest prey for this virus, as most of them were already victims of social differentiation and discrimination. The unheard plight of funeral workers is a no different, as they often go ‘missing’ from the eye of the general public. Funeral workers all over the world, irrespective of whether they are grave diggers or cremators, perform their duties to provide a dignified funeral to our loved ones.
To understand the depth of the matter, we have to take a look at the numbers of death due to COVID-19. Italy is the worst-hit as so far 18, 279 deaths have been reported from the country. This novel coronavirus has made it a country inundated with coffins. Due to the high pace of death toll, dead bodies are denied a ‘dignified’ death with loved ones not given a chance to bid goodbye to them. Massimo, funeral director of Italy, in his interview in ‘The Coronavirus Crises’, says, “Doctors and nurses across the country have been hailed as heroes, saviours but funeral directors have not received recognition for what they too are doing. Many people see us as mere transporters of souls”.
Spain, the another country with high death toll, which has recorded a total of 15, 447 deaths, has a shortage of coffins for the increasing number of dead bodies. The situation is so alarming that parking places in Barcelona have been converted into a huge makeshift-morgues. Further, Spain has banned funeral ceremonies, including vigils at home and has decreed that no more than three people can attend burials.
As far as Brazil is concerned, mass graveyards have been dug by grave-diggers. The spike in coronavirus cases here has forced workers to dig 780, 000-sq meter burial grounds to increase the size of a plot which already contains more than 1.5 million grave spots (Dailymail.com, 6 April 2020). The gravediggers of Vila Formosaare are working at a gruelling pace, as their load has doubled to almost 60 burials per day. Besides working day and night, these funeral workers are also of course scared of the fear of getting infected from this disease.
Now, the point I want to emphasise is that in fighting the pandemic, even countries with robust health systems are being severely tried by the unexpected pressure posed due to the emergence of COVID-19. Out of the 15 countries with the most confirmed cases, 14 of them have their health employment data available on the International Labour Organization Statistics. These countries, which include Italy, Spain and the United State and others, have well above the global average of 174 employed in their health sectors per 10, 000 people. It is also worth mentioning that though having an adequate number of health workers is crucial to fight the pandemic, some others factors too are important — access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), enough rest and recovery period, health protocol etc. — that determine how effectively health workers can work.
The Government of India has taken a lot of immediate measures to tackle the widespread crises created by the pandemic. However, the outcome of these measures will be known only after the lockdown period is over and depends on whether India succeeds in suppressing the pandemic or not. The failure of Italy and Spain are petrifying enough because like them, India doesn’t have good healthcare facilities. As per the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), India’s total healthcare spending (out-of-pocket and Public) is only 3.65 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is very low in comparison to other countries. In addition to this, the numbers of health workers are also less. Besides this, many of these health workers are getting infected themselves, because of lack of PPE kits. As per recent reports, 30 health workers of AIIMS Delhi have to be quarantined. This is the condition of frontline health workers working at a gruelling pace, despite which the death toll keeps increasing all over the world. So, one can just imagine the condition of funeral workers mostly ignored because of the label of ‘death’ attached to their work.
Funeral workers in India
The peculiarity of funeral workers of India lies in the caste system. Unlike other countries, it is the caste system in India that allocates occupations, forcing particular communities to engage in them generation-after-generations. The ascribed nature of this system distinguishes certain occupation as ‘pure’ and others as ‘polluted’, on the basis of one’s position in the caste hierarchy. So the menial work of dealing with dead bodies is reserved for the lower castes known as the ‘Dom community’. From time immemorial, the Dom community has been engaged in taking care of the last rites of Hindu rituals. To speak specifically about Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Doms here are known as the ‘custodians of salvation’, due to the nature of their work. In Varanasi, they stay at the Harischandra Ghat and the Manikarnika Ghat, both infamous for their cremation ghats.
Varanasi, also known as ‘Kashi’, holds unique significance in Hindu religious belief, and for the Dom community, which claims their lineage from the mythological figure ‘Kallu Dom’. It is proclaimed that Kallu Dom kept Raja Harischandra as his servant in the cremation ghat.
As per Hindu religious views, it is a popular belief that those who get the opportunity to die in ‘Kashi’ attain ‘moksha’ (salvation). Due to this belief, bodies from all over India are bought to Manikarnika and Harischandra Ghats. Despite the fact that the Harischandra Ghat has an electrical crematorium, built in 1991 and recently changed to a gas crematorium, most dead bodies here are cremated manually. The primary reason for this of course the belief of people that manual cremation accompanied with all the rites and rituals, will get the deceased soul salvation. Secondly, most of the time, the gas crematorium remains closed due to technical snag. If we talk about its capacity then, the crematorium only has about two chambers, which means that only two bodies can be cremated at a time.
Amidst the pandemic, two questions arise: Are government authorities well prepared to ensure that no technical snag will happen? What is the alternative if the frequency of dead bodies increases, since the gas crematorium here has limited capacity?
My doctoral research is on the Dom community in Varanasi. Due to the suddenly declared lockdown and an atmosphere of uneasiness at Harischandra Ghat, I got a call from my key research participants. Through telephonic conversations, I came to know about the current scenario at Harischandra Ghat. On 3rd April, the first coronavirus death in India was reported at the BHU hospital. The man was a 55-year old from Gangapur in Varanasi. The dead body came to Harischandra Ghat in a mortuary van. It spread waves of terror at the Ghat in no time. To escape this situation, males of the Dom caste ran away from the cremation ghat. Everybody was worried of getting infected from the dead body. Were their fear and anxiety baseless? I don’t think so, since in such a situation, all of us would have tried to protect ourselves. The situation all the more more fearsome when one is not well informed about the ways in which one can be protected. Lack of education further adds on to the distress.
Rahul Chaudhary (name changed), a Dom, state, “Who will touch those bodies? What if we also get infected from them?” He further disclosed, “The relatives of the deceased wanted a manual cremation, but we are not informed how to deal with these bodies. After police intervention, it was decided that this body will go the gas crematorium”.
Manish Chaudhary (name changed), another funeral worker said, “The body was burnt in the gas crematorium, but if more bodies come, then we might have to do manual cremation. However, we can’t take the risk of burning of bodies at the Ghat, because our houses are nearby. What if the virus will get into our houses through the smoke? At least in the gas crematorium, the smoke will go up”. He further added, “If more bodies come, then we will burn those bodies on the other bank of the Ganges, what else can we do? We will wear clothes for protection. If we won’t burn, then who will? We have to do it willingly or unwillingly”.
Its strange that despite being aware of the havoc this virus has created across the world, no government authorities have given any information the about preventive measures to this community. In the absence of such awareness, safety equipment and support from government authorities, it’s no surprise that the Doms are scared of even going near the COVID-19 dead bodies.
As it is still unclear how long the virus stays inside dead bodies, the WHO has mentioned the proper disposal of bodies to prevent possible spread from secretions. In addition, Dr T. Jacob John, a former Head of the Virology Centre in ICMR, said that plastic bags covering the dead bodies should be at least 100 microns thick, so that they dont tear off. This means that in cremating COVID-19 dead bodies, people should be extra careful. The guidelines issued by the Indian Health Ministry has certain gaps which hinder smooth processing. As a majority of the Hindu population cremate dead bodies in the open space near the bank of the river, authorities have mentioned about using gas or electric crematoria. However, this can’t conceal the fact that India has a shortage of such crematoria and the existing few do not function most of the time. In addition, the WHO has stated to “ensure that personnel who interact with the body apply standard precautions including hand hygiene before and after interaction with the body, including a gown and gloves. If there is a risk of splashes from the body fluid or secretions, personnel should use facial protection, including the use of face shield or goggles and medical mask”.
Manual Cremation
All that Doms use to move the corpses on pyres is a shaft of bamboo, along with a piece of cloth to cover their face from the smoke. Besides this, they are not provided with any protective equipment. In most cases, when the dead body is turned on the pyre, the stomach of the dead body bursts, leading to splashes of hot body fluids on the faces of the funeral workers, leading to burns and injuries. All of this is of course against WHO’s guidelines about disposal of the dead bodies.
Now, the question arises: Shouldn’t government authorities train the Dom community/funeral workers of preventive measures, because whether it is in a gas crematorium or at a manual cremation ghat, it’s the Doms who are to deal with dead bodies. Shouldn’t they be made aware of possible occupational hazards, besides being provided with basic safety equipment, as recommended by WHO?
In addition to these issues, one more surprising event was reported on 5 April — Baikunthdham, the largest cremation ghat of Lucknow, has run out of wood supply for cremation due to the country-wide lockdown. Their supply will only last three days, after which they will have to stop cremating. In Prayagraj (former Allahabad) too, the main cremation ground at Rasoolabad faces a similar situation. The report also mentions that cremators had brought this issue to the attention of the authorities, but no action has been taken yet.
Is this how we plan to fight the pandemic? Or are we waiting for a situation when piles of dead bodies, similar to Italy and Spain, will wait for their turn in queues? Despite living in the 21st century, in India, funeral work is regarded as the most repulsive, to such an extent that certain castes groups till date are forced to remain ‘untouchable’. These workers are taken into consideration only when someone has to be cremated. They are required to clean all the debris and filth of dead bodies at the cost of getting themselves infected, along with other occupational hazards. Do our authorities not have any responsibility to spread awareness about the dangers and necessary preventative measures amongst this community? Shouldn’t they be provided with safety equipment?
At last, I would like to end by asking, all those fighting the pandemic at the front-line are important. but aren’t the lives of funeral workers, who help us in performing last rites and try to give a dignified death to our loved ones, equally important?
Sarita is a PhD scholar at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, New Delhi. She can be reached at kashyapsarita910@gmail.com.
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