SRIKAKULAM: Moved by the manner in which even relatives refrain from performing the last rites of Covid-19 victims, an educated unemployed youngster took it upon himself to perform the last rites of such people.
G Shyam Sundar, who lives on Tumma Street in Srikakulam, earlier worked as a technical assistant in the civil supplies department as an outsourced employee. Over the past three months, he performed the last rites of 12 people who succumbed to coronavirus in the district, and says he will continue doing this till the crisis ends.“As I am unemployed and from a poor family, I cannot spend money on social service. So I decided to do my bit by performing the last rites of victims,” he says.
He made this decision after seeing how the family of a woman who died of Covid-19 refused to receive her body from the hospital. “They were not even willing to see the body in the hospital. Municipal corporation officials later buried it. I felt bad about this and decided to do something,” he says.
At that time, the Indian Red Cross Society sought volunteers to cremate bodies of victims, and Shyam Sundar stepped forward. He follows the safety protocol, but admits that he hasn’t told his mother and other relatives about his voluntary work due to fear of stigma.