Citizens seek dignified farewell for deceased

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 1

Amid heartbreaking visuals of bodies of Covid deceased being dumped into pits by municipal staffers in Karnataka, eminent citizens today wrote an open letter to the people saying there was no scientific reason for them to not perform the last rites of loved ones who had succumbed to the virus.

Signed by Rajmohan Gandhi, Harsh Mander, Sharmila Tagore, Nayantara Sehgal among others, the letter notes that the stigma around Covid-19 has spread from the living to the dead even though there are scientific and official guidelines showing that a dignified death is possible.

“It is deeply saddening that the fear and stigma around Covid-19 has caused families to abandon performing the last rites for their family members. Journalists have reported of public officials and bystanders performing the last rites of individuals with family members unwilling to do so for fear of the infection,” signatories said, adding that during the pandemic, science must guide people in negotiating the difficult boundary between public and individual safety and misapprehension and stigma.

“It is completely safe for the last rites of a loved one to be performed by family members and for them to have a respectful burial or cremation,” said the appeal. It cited the Ministry of Health‘s March 15 guidelines on burials which say that families may view the faces of loved ones before cremating or burying them and all rituals that do not require contact are allowed.

Signatories to the letter include leading personalities from different walks of life, including art, theatre and public health — Vikram Patel, Shah Alam Khan, Sujatha Rao, Keshav Desiraju, Vandana Prasad, Mathew Varghese, Apoorvanand, Dinesh Mohan, Vikas Bajpai, Imran Qadeer, Syeda Hameed, John Dayal, Navsharan Singh, Natasha Badhwar, Radhika Alkazi, Rita Manchanda, Tapan Bose, Armaan Alkazi and Anwar ul Haq.