Gauhati, India: Ramananda Sarkar never sought to burn a framework for a living, yet he was deeply indebted and desperately short of money.
The 43-year-old man fled his remote village in Assam state, northeastern India, after not repaying a loan he had obtained to start promoting sugar cane juice in a wooden cart, but even in the state capital, Sarkar struggled to locate himself. enough work.
Then, two years ago, Sarkar walked on a cremation floor in Gauhati and took on the task of funeral pyres.
While Hindus who have cremation rights are sacred and lose the souls of the deceased of the Renaissance cycle, those who really care about corpses are despised. This stigma has only been exacerbated by coronavirus, which has killed more than 100,000 people in India. 6. 4 million reported infections.
Sarkar had accepted his reputation, even though he told his wife what his task was after hiding it for a while, but in early May he participated in what he devised was a cremation regimen, not knowing that the woman had died of COVID-19.
When others learned that the woman was a victim of coronavirus, Sarkar’s wisdom began to avoid her. The humiliation is back.
The state government quarantined him for a few days, but let him out because there was no one to do his paintings in the cremation field.
“I don’t understand why other people hate me, just because I burn corpses?Sarkar asked. ” If I don’t do that, who will?”
Sarkar volunteered and is now running on a special cremation floor that the local government has designated only for those affected by the pandemic.
With a mask on his face and a prayer on his lips, he incinerated the bodies brought through a handful of clothed parents, hasty affairs carried out with minimal rituals according to state government rules.
Assam state has reported that more than 181,600 cases have shown cases of viruses since the onset of the pandemic and 711 deaths. Sarkar said he single-time incinerated more than 450 people with COVID-19.
Despite his important network service, the effect on Sarkar’s life continues to worsen.
When his owner found out about Sarkar’s work, he told him he was moving out. Fortunately, a district official arranged a hotel room for him.
Sarkar also prevented him from returning to his village to make a stopover with his family, first through the village leader and then, after local government intervention on his behalf, through the villagers themselves.
After a month and a part of not seeing his wife and three children, Sarkar sneaked into his village in the middle of a recent rainy night, called his family circle from the street and was able to spend 15 minutes with him. I leave them money.
“I don’t need my kids to crematoriums like me, ” said Sarkar. “I need you to go to school and be intelligent human beings and earn the respect of society, not like me, who has to meet their circle of relatives in the dark. “”
On the way back to the city, Sarkar prevented him from resting in a nearby temple, but temple officials temporarily told him to leave.
Sarkar returned to the cremation site and said that despite the non-public burden, which includes the threat of infection, he will continue to appease the burial pyres of those who lost their lives to the virus and honor them as productive as he can.
“I’d probably die of COVID-19, but I don’t care,” he says, “I’ll do my homework honestly to the end. “
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