COIMBATORE: Superintendent of Police V Badrinarayanan on Monday honoured M Amina, a police constable from Mettupalayam who has been cremating unidentified and unclaimed bodies.
"It doesn't seem like work to me. Some of the task falls under my duty, and taking responsibility till the cremation is complete is in my best interest," said Amina, who is tasked with following medico-legal proceedings and spends most of her time in government hospitals.
"I work on postmortem procedures, obtaining postmortem certificates and other medico-legal processes for accident victims. As a result, I spend most of my time in government hospitals in Mettupalayam and Coimbatore, where we typically hand over the dead bodies to the families after finishing the autopsy. However, it is terrible and painful when no one comes forward to claim the body. Hence, I take care of the last rituals," she said.
Amina said she has organized the cremation of more than 100 unclaimed bodies within the Mettupalayam police limit over the past five years, with the help of volunteers from the Jeeva Jothi trust and fellow police personnel. Amina, who began her career in 2010, was initially assigned to Mettupalayam as an assistant writer, but she has been overseeing medico-legal procedures from the past five years.
"After the postmortem, we usually receive a letter from the municipality, and the staff of the municipality helps us locate a spot for cremation. For the formalities, we spend at least Rs 1,500, and we will split this expense with my colleagues, who support me in this," she said.