Dignified farewell for COVID deceased possible, eminent citizens write open letter to public

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 1

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

Signed by Rajmohan Gandhi, Harsh Mander, Sharmila Tagore and 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 detailed scientific and official guidelines that show 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 the infection,” the signatories say, adding that a proper and complete understanding of the disease and dynamics is needed, along with a strong public campaign, to improve everyone’s understanding of the disease.

“In these challenging times science must guide us 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,” says the letter in an appeal to people to see off their loved ones respectfully.

The signatories cite Ministry of Health‘s March 15 guidelines on burials which state that the family may view the face of their loved one before they are cremated or buried and all religious rituals that do not require contact are allowed.

“There is indeed no scientific reason why people who have lost their loved ones to COVID-19 cannot see the face of their loved one before the last rites, and there is no rational or scientific barrier for them to undertake with due safety the religious and cultural practices associated with death rites which they believe in and which will give them solace, as long as this does not involve crowding and physical contact,” said the writers of the letter noting that the process of grieving begins with this important ritualised moment of seeing the loved one off.

Among other signatories to the open letter are 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.