CHENNAI: It’s an unusual Christmas wish and a yearning for dignity. For, the dead are not remembered for long, bemoaned K Augustin, Joint Secretary of the Christian Cemetery Welfare Association.
Those who remember CD Limpsey almost every day, other than family and friends, are residents of TG Anna Nagar on Ayapakkam road, Ambattur.
The 24-year-old nurse was found raped and murdered in the cemetery in 2004. Even 12 years after that gory incident, its gates are still open to anyone wanting to make it their den of vice after nightfall.
“There are always men who come to drink here at nights because there is no lock at the gate,” said a mechanic shop owner adjacent to the cemetery.
Here, one of the Christian burial grounds in the city, the dead lay amidst glass bottles, plastic cups, withered garlands and textile boxes on the grounds, also home to wayward bushes.
According to Augustin, for years they have been fighting so that their dead could rest in peace. But nothing has changed. “There was once even a slaughterhouse inside the premises, which was removed after a long struggle,” he recalled.
The compound wall at the back of the cemetery is broken, and pipes carrying wastewater from houses on the other side drained into the cemetery.
Like most Christian cemeteries in the city, this one too is short on space. It is around 3,600 sqft and shared by Hindu, Christian, Muslim and Marwaris with fences for each.
According to P Stephen Jebamaris, the general secretary of Indian Missionary Movement, an additional five acres at least were required to bury people from almost 50 churches in the locality – at least nine main churches and other smaller ones from areas such as ICF colony, Ambattur and nearby areas.
According to members of the Christian Cemetery Welfare Association, people sometimes wait for six months to a year before burying a new body in a spot where a body already lay buried. At least one body is buried every month in the cemetery with three bodies buried in November alone.
According to Augustin, those with money bury their dead in private cemeteries and mark the spot with a headstone by shelling out Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000, although against the rules, reserving some dignity. This leaves unmarked graves of the poor who could not afford it easy targets for reburial. “This Christmas, let our dead have their dignity back,” said Augustin.