PUDUCHERRY: Outrage erupted across platforms when a Covid patient from Chennai was buried in an insensitive manner by sanitary workers in Puducherry. They were accused of being heartless, and were even taken to task. To ‘dignify’ future burials, the union territory authorised a non-profit to carry out the procedures. It has now emerged that volunteers of this NGO are facing constant threats for helping those in need, especially from private ambulance drivers.
“This happened the very first time I went to pick up a dead body from Indira Gandhi hospital,” says A Ahmed Ali, president of the NGO Popular Front of India. “A private ambulance driver walked up and told me to put an end to the ‘voluntary service’. He said it was hurting his business. He said if I stayed away, he would get hired. It was more of a warning.” Ahmed claims when he said it was the government’s decision, the argument escalated. “It almost came to physical assault.”
Ahmed says the driver soon made it a communal issue. “The driver walked away when I defended myself and came back with a bunch of others. He asked me how my organisation could cremate or bury bodies of Hindus when we predominantly work for Muslims.” Before things could escalate, Ahmed says officials came out and asked him to take over the body. “As the ambulance was accompanied by police and municipality officials, they did not interfere.
PFI does cater predominantly to Muslims, agrees Ahmed. “But we have also assisted Hindus in need. Even two months back there was one such case. A patient from Kerala was undergoing treatment at JIPMER. When he got discharged and struggled to go home due to the lockdown, I took him by my ambulance to Kerala border. When we were not allowed to cross over I made arrangements for the stay of the patient and his family, got them a travel pass, and also arranged another ambulance on the other side of the border to take them home.”
Ahmed says, “we do not do these things after taking the needy’s religion into consideration.” Ahmed says this isn’t new. Even before PFI used to transport bodies of patients who could not afford a private service. Though private operators did not like it, they did not interfere as the poor anyway could not pay for the services. “Now they see Covid as a money-making opportunity.”
What happened?
To ‘dignify’ future covid burials, the union territory authorised a non-profit to carry out the procedures. It has now emerged that volunteers of this NGO are facing constant threats for helping those in need, especially from private ambulance drivers. A Ahmed Ali, president of the NGO says some are treating it as a communal issue