With body of his younger brother in arms, 8-year-old boy sits by roadside in Madhya Pradesh

Tribune Web Desk

Chandigarh, July 10

A heart-wrenching incident of an eight-year-old boy having to sit for hours by the roadside with the body of his 2-year-old brother on his lap has come to light from Morena district of Madhya Pradesh. The incident happened as their father went to search for a vehicle to take the body to their native village.

ये दर्दनाक तस्वीर भावुक भी कर रही है और मध्यप्रदेश में स्वास्थ्य व्यवस्थाओं पर गुस्सा भी दिला रही है।

मध्यप्रदेश में एक आठ साल के बच्चे की गोद में अपने छोटे भाई का शव है और पिता एम्बुलेंस खोजने निकले हैं।

यही है पीएम मोदी की व्यवस्थाओं का सच! pic.twitter.com/Dt708Xy5JH

— Congress (@INCIndia) July 10, 2022

As per reports, Poojaram Jatav, a resident of Ambah tehsil in Morena, had brought his two-year-old son to the district hospital. The child was suffering from anaemia and other ailments. Jatav along with the sick son and his elder brother arrived in an ambulance to Morena where the boy died during treatment.

Jatav said when he approached the doctors and staff at the district hospital for a vehicle to take the child's body to the village they refused claiming that there is no vehicle available at the hospital and asked him to rent a vehicle on his own.

Later, an ambulance driver asked for Rs 1500 to take the body to the village but Jatav did not have so much money with him. Unable to find a vehicle inside the hospital premises, Jatav made his 8-year-old son sit on the roadside in front of a park and kept the body of the younger son in his lap, and went out to search for a vehicle, which could take them back to village.

The child sat for hours with his younger brother's dead body in his lap waiting for his father's return. Covering the body with a cloth and swatting away flies, the boy looked forlorn. 

Upon receiving information about the incident, Kotwali police in-charge Yogendra Singh reached the spot and picked up the body from boy’s lap, and took him to the district hospital. Later, when Jatav reached the spot, an ambulance was arranged and the body was taken to the village.

"I have four children, three sons and a daughter. My wife went to her parent's home three months ago, since then I am taking care of my children," said Jatav.

Meanwhile, lashing out at the state government, state Congress chief and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath tweeted: "In Morena, an 8-year-old child was sitting in the hospital with the body of his 2-year-old younger brother. His father Poojaram Jatav kept pleading for an ambulance to take the son's body to the village, but he did not get an ambulance for a dead body for hours."

मुरैना में 8 साल का मासूम बच्चा अपने 2 साल के छोटे भाई का शव लेकर अस्पताल में बैठा रहा। उसके पिता श्री पूजाराम जाटव बेटे का शव गांव ले जाने के लिए एंबुलेंस के लिए गुहार लगाते रहे, लेकिन उन्हें घंटों तक एंबुलेंस या शव वाहन नहीं मिला।

— Kamal Nath (@OfficeOfKNath) July 10, 2022

Nath demanded to know from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan why there is a dearth of ambulances in the state. 

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