MADURAI: The deaths of homeless people, commonly termed as 'unknown corpses', touched a five-year low last year in the district, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to the data accessed from Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) through RTI queries over the past years, the number of unknown corpses at GRH in 2020 was 41, which is nearly half of the deaths registered in 2019.
Speaking to TNIE, Director of Idhayam Trust, a city based non-governmental organisation, GR Sivakumar, said that the Covid-induced lockdown was a sort of blessing in disguise as the pandemic helped in rehabilitating many abandoned people.
"Some of them were drug addicts, some were mentally disturbed and others were beggars. In a pre-Covid scenario, we neither had the manpower and infrastructure nor the monetary support to rehabilitate them," he said.
With the lockdown in place, the NGO in collaboration with the district administration, Madurai Municipal Corporation and the police department established camps to house the homeless. A total of 352 abandoned people were rescued and housed for 75 days at the camps.
"It turned out to be a huge success. Firstly, there was not a single Covid-19 positive case reported among the inmates. Further, more than two months of time gave enough room for rehabilitation," he said, adding that around 128 individuals were reunited with their families after the lockdown relaxation.
The NGO, which has been working for the cause, has also extended burial service for over 54 abandoned people since 2009.
Further, Sivakumar also claimed that the death rate has been brought to nil in Anna Nagar jurisdiction, which has also been made 99.9 per cent begger-free zone with the joint efforts of police personnel in the locality.
Manikandan, another individual who has been carrying out burial service for the abandoned, said that begging, which remains as a root cause for people choosing to stay on roadside after being abandoned by the families, should be eradicated.
"The joint efforts of government machinery to create a network of those individuals and organisations working for the cause with a non-commercial motive is the need of the hour," he added