BERHAMPUR: Held together by a piece of cloth and a rubber tube, his sister-in-law’s lifeless body slung from the cross-bar as Chaturbhuja Banka pushed his bicycle towards the graveyard in Boudh’s Krushnapali village on Wednesday morning. Villagers took pictures, circulated it through their mobile phones but no one volunteered to help the 62-year-old Chaturbhuja shoulder the dead woman because he had been ostracised.
Dignity for the dead, along with humanity, had died with Pancha Mahankud but for no fault of hers.
The 40-year-old Pancha was staying with her brother-in-law Chaturbhuja ever since her parents passed away because she was very poor and could not support herself. On Tuesday, she suffered from diarrhoea and was admitted to Boudh Hospital where she passed away. An ambulance from the hospital brought her body to Chaturbhuja’s house this morning. A daily wager, the 62-year-old requested his fellow villagers to help him carry Pancha’s body but everyone turned him down because he had been declared a social outcast.
According to Zilla Parishad member Abakash Sahu, who brought the matter to limelight, Chaturbhuja had opted for a second marriage as his first wife was issueless. For marrying a woman of other caste, he was charged with defying the traditional custom and villagers boycotted him.
Though he had faced ostracisation, Chaturbhuja had no inkling that his fervent requests to villagers to lend their shoulder to carry a dead body to cremation ground would fall in deaf ears at such an hour. With no one coming forward, he was forced to place Pancha on his bi-cycle and took her to the graveyard for cremation as his pictures went viral on social media.The State Government has a Mahaprayana Scheme that provides free hearse service to people but from hospitals to homes only.