Despite lockdown, voluntary body continues cremating bodies
Sambalpur: During the lockdown when people were advised to stay home, some members of Sambal, a city-based organisation that cremates unclaimed bodies continued with their job. On Friday, they cremated a woman at Raj Ghat, the cremation ground.
Secretary of the organization Subrat Panda said, “We have not stopped our work. We are going to places on receiving information about the unclaimed bodies and giving a decent farewell to the deceased. ”
Subrat said embers are taking all precautions while executing their work due to the Covid-19 scare. “We are sending only two members in our vehicle to the place from where we are getting the information about the unclaimed body. They use masks, gloves and maintain social distancing between them when they go to bring the body. Similarly, two to three other members await the body outside the Raj Ghat. They take the body to the crematorium for cremation. We have already cremated three bodies during the lockdown, ” that he added.
Sambal was formed in 2009. Members of the organization were involved in activities like blood donation and cleaning when it had been formed. However, in 2011 members of the organization decided to take the responsibility to cremate the unclaimed bodies.
They have cremated significantly more than 400 unclaimed bodies so far. You will find around 120 members in the corporation now. Earlier, the members of the organizations were contributing funds for the cremation of the unclaimed dead bodies. However, the organisation has signed an MoU with the government recently. Nowadays, the us government provides the money required for the cremation under Harischandra Sahayata Yojana.
During the lockdown, members of the organization have not restricted themselves to cremating unclaimed bodies only, they’re also providing food to the poor and destitutes. “We are providing food to around 400 poor and destitutes twice a day during this lockdown, ” said Subrat.
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