SAMBALPUR: Dana Majhi’s case is just the tip of the iceberg. While Dana’s case came to the fore after being highlighted by both national and international media, Western Odisha has been witness to several such incidents where dead bodies have been either abandoned on isolated roads by poverty-stricken people or taken in trolleys for cremation.
No care is being taken by the administration to ensure that bodies are taken in a dignified manner and cremated.
The ‘Mahaprayan’ scheme, aimed at providing vehicles to families to carry dead bodies of their relatives from hospitals to their homes free of cost, has come too late.
On August 24 when Dana was in the limelight for carrying the body of his wife for 10 km as he was denied ambulance service, body of another person was donated by his family members to VIMSAR as they could not afford to take it to their village and cremate it.
The deceased was Kalia Mirdha (45) and his body was found from bushes along the road at Goudpali in Burla on Wednesday. Police investigation revealed that Kalia was admitted to tuberculosis ward in VIMSAR and had died on August 22 night. He was a resident of Radhapur under Subalaya police limits in Sonepur district and is survived by his wife and an eight-year-old son.
Unable to afford transportation of the dead body, his family had dumped the body near the spot close to tuberculosis ward. Later, with help from Subalaya police, Burla police contacted the family and one of his relatives, Cheru Mirdha, accompanied by a villager, reached Burla. However, as they had no money for cremation, Mirdha accepted the proposal to hand over the body to Forensic and Toxicology Department at VIMSAR.
On August 20, an unidentified person died in Bargarh District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) after undergoing treatment for three days. After keeping the corpse in the mortuary for three days, sweepers took the body on a hand cart to bury it.
On March 22 this year, Manas Mohapatra (12) and his sister Sasmita (18) carried the body of their mother Pramila (46), who died at Naktideul CHC, on a hand cart. The poverty-stricken family did not have money to shift the body in a vehicle from the CHC to their village in Sarapali.
On April 4, two daughters, Chandrakanti (35) and Rechi (30), had to carry the body of their 70-year-old mother Dei Pradhan on their shoulders for cremation in Baipali village under Sohela Block of Bargarh district after villagers refused to help them as their father was afflicted by leprosy even though he had long left the village to protect his family from the stigma.
The honour killing case of Balangir where a girl was killed and her body disposed of at a garbage dumping yard is still fresh in public memory.