As the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc across India, hospitals and cremation/burial grounds are being overrun. Meanwhile, the public health care system remains weak and unable to cope.

The Madras High Court has aptly described the grim situation, “We were lulled into a false sense of security to be hit by a Tsunami of infections now”.  Karnataka has been among the worst-affected states in March and April in India, with registering around 38,000 total cases as of May 3 and 16,000 deaths.

According to a News Minute report, the total number of actual deaths is much higher than what has been recorded by the government. The publication spoke to 6 crematoria and the managers of the Indian Christian cemetery burial ground and the Jumma Masjid Trust Board burial ground in Nandidurga and concluded that the actual toll of Covid deaths between April 18 to April 22 stood at 860 against the official figure of a mere 467.

SabrangIndia spoke to Chandu, a worker at the Kudlu Cremation Centre who said that he received roughly 310 covid bodies from March 1 to April 25. Kudlu is just one of the cremation grounds in the city that handles bodies of people killed by Covid in the city! Chandu said that the load has increased manifold and so they have been cremating only Covid bodies for the last three days. “The pressure is too much, we burnt 20 bodies on April 28, and 27 bodies on April 29. I feel sad,” he expressed.

Vinod, who works at one of the Covid designated crematoria in the capital city told SabrangIndia, “I too fear for my life now. There seems to be no end to this. Everyone is getting infected. Every day we see bodies just piling up. 30 bodies, 35 bodies, 40 bodies, when will this stop? These are the ones that reach government records, there are some who pass away at home, what about them?”

We tried to contact the Jumma Masjid Trust Board that manages the burial grounds in Bangalore city but there was no response.

Other districts in Karnataka are facing the same issue of under-reporting owing to miscommunication with government officials and lack of awareness about Coronavirus. Umar, a resident of Mangalore who volunteers with the Wellness Helpline for Covid related guidance, spoke to SabrangIndia at length about the facilities and the actual reality in Dakshina Kannada.

“I know 4 people who died of Covid yesterday in Mangalore. I know their names; I know where they live. But government data shows only one. I don’t think the difference between the actual death (in Dakshina Kannada) and government recorded death is a lot but we cannot completely rule out the possibility of discrepancy,” he said. He added that statistics also go missing as some patients don’t even make it to the hospitals. “If you die in a hospital, it should get reported, but there is no guarantee if you pass away at home,” said Umar. 

With respect to facilities in the District, he said private hospitals are functioning well, but government hospitals are lagging behind. “Private hospitals have around 85 ICU beds with ventilators, but government hospitals have a total of only 35 ICU ventilator beds and they are all filled to capacity currently,” said Umar. This raises an alarm about the 36th Covid patient who might need ventilator support while approaching a government facility. He said not enough people are getting vaccinated due to shortage and ignorance. “People are still so scared of the virus and don’t understand the nature of it. But several volunteers are helping with awareness. More people will come forward to get their vaccine shots and hopefully the shortage issue will also reduce,” said Umar.

Owing to the less population in the District, Umar also said that he has not witnessed anybody complaining about oxygen shortage but added that availability of cylinders is a potential threat. “But wellness helpline has placed an order for cylinders from Chennai,” he added.

Mercy Mission, a coalition of more than 25 NGOs working round the clock to assist people with Covid related emergencies in Bangalore has been getting a deluge of cremation and burial requests. Ameen-e-Mudassar of Mercy Mission informed SabrangIndia about the ‘horrible situation’ in the city and the sudden rise in infections rendering people helpless.

Mercy Mission’s activities also include helping families with the last rites of the departed and the said wing goes by the name Mercy Angels. “Since April, we have been getting around 20-25 requests for burial/cremation but we can manage only 15 bodies daily. It is a sad situation. We send volunteers to hospitals and they pick up the Covid bodies and wait for 6-8 hours for one single slot outside cremation grounds. For burials, our volunteers don’t have to bury the body themselves but instead, hand it over to the people working there. But the handing over process takes a lot of time since there are always 6 to 8 people in queues,” he said.

Not completely sure about the definite numbers, Ameen said there are around two cemeteries for Christians, five to six burial grounds for Muslims and seven cremation grounds in Bangalore. “In addition to all this, close to 23 open air cremation grounds have been constructed on the outskirts of Bangalore but there is still not enough space,” he added. According to an Indian Express report, at one of the open crematoria at Tavarekere (that became operational on April 28) over 50 cremations were conducted on May 1 and May 2.

Clearly perturbed about the current scheme of things, Ameen also told SabrangIndia that the worst hit are old citizens whose children are abroad. “Some people are so helpless; they cannot even bid farewell to their loved ones in a dignified manner because they fear the virus. They are abandoning cremations and burials,” he said.

In the month of April alone, they have received close to 50,000 distress calls for oxygen, tests, medicines but due to lack of enough resources and volunteers they could manage to entertain only 10,000 calls. For normal hospital beds, they have recorded around 5,000 calls and could manage to get only 200 beds for Bangalore residents. “There are no ICU beds, we have given up,” he said.

The crematoria and burial grounds are so overwhelmed with bodies that some have to be sent back to mortuaries at the hospital. A staffer at Victoria Hospital, which has a 48-cabinet mortuary facility, told Indian Express, “The mortuary had about 40 bodies earlier this week, and on average there are at least 25 bodies each day in the second wave.” In cases of accidents where the deceased person remains unidentified, the hospitals preserved the body for 3 days. But with the sudden pressure of Covid deaths, the hospital staff is telling the police to get autopsies done within a day to ease the pressure.

According to the Times of India, the positive cases are also being under-reported. Many people in Bangalore who are testing positive are not making to the state’s official data. TOI explained that for example, on April 27 three residents of Bangalore were given P (numbers 1464777, 1455336 and 144206) but these numbers were not in the April 28 state bulletin. Eleven individuals who died of Covid and were listed under fatalities in the April 27 bulletin, had P numbers that were way beyond Karnataka’s covid tally of 14,00,775. P numbers of Patient numbers reflects the total number of people infected with coronavirus.

A Bangalore resident (who requested anonymity) told SabrangIndia about the desperate need for beds in the city. He said, “My mother is a nurse in one of the designated Covid Hospitals in Bangalore. The issue here is non availability of beds. They are now having to send patients away.” As we tried contacting Victoria hospital, the largest public hospital in the city, they confirmed too that there are no ICU beds available.

The Karnataka High Court observed the same difficulty of dearth of beds, and directed the State to substantially increase hospital beds in Bengaluru as well as in those districts where there are more than 5,000 active Covid cases in April. According to a Bar & Bench report, the court termed the situation “quite alarming”. But the problem appears to persist. According to government’s updated list, there are only 35 ICU beds available in Bangalore for Covid patients.

The infrastructure is stretched thin. Hospitals are facing oxygen shortage and if not oxygen shortage, cylinder shortage worries people. A member from Karnataka’s Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee told The Caravan, “In very big hospitals…there is a liquid oxygen system and oxygenators, so an oxygen-generating system is in place, but in smaller hospitals and nursing homes, we are finding that there is a definite shortage.”

On May 3, The Times of India reported the death of 24 Covid patients in Chamarajanagar, 175 kilometres away from Bengaluru, after the government district hospital ran out of oxygen supply on May 2. The Yediyurappa government has reportedly convened a meeting to probe the reason behind this tragedy and on the other hand, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reacted to this by tweeting, “Died or Killed?” 

Died or Killed?

My heartfelt condolences to their families.

How much more suffering before the ‘system’ wakes up? pic.twitter.com/JrfZbIo7zm

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 3, 2021

Dr. Prasanna of Pristine Hospital has raised concerns about oxygen scarcity and was quoted saying by the IE, “Our regular oxygen supplier said he ran out of stock and could provide only one cylinder in place of four yesterday. Even though the State Drugs Controller and his team worked all night with us to get supply back on track, we had no choice but to pay thrice the normal amount to get oxygen from other vendors.”

But the Health and Medical Education Minister, K Sudhakar, has refused to accept any shortage complaints and urged people to not panic. On April 18, he had tweeted, “There are 7 medical oxygen production plants in Karnataka with a daily production capacity of 812 tonnes, while the medical oxygen utilised on Saturday was about 272.61 tonnes.”

There are 7 medical oxygen production plants in Karnataka with a daily production capacity of 812 tonnes, while the medical oxygen utilised on Saturday was about 272.61 tonnes. So I appeal to everyone to not create unnecessary panic about shortage of medical oxygen in the state.

— Dr Sudhakar K (@mla_sudhakar) April 18, 2021

With the aggressive second wave witnessed in the month of April that might peak mid- May according to experts, it is difficult to forget the apocalyptic images of death and suffering around us. ICU beds are filled to capacity, there is no space to bury the dead and volunteers and medical staff are overwhelmed.

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The post Covid-19: Karnataka unable to dispose of the dead, even as people struggle to survive appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Madras High Court has taken cognizance of an incident that took place in Chennai where the remains of a 55 year old doctor who died of Covid-19 were denied burial by protesting mobs. The Late Dr. Simon Hercules was a neurologist and the Chairman of New Hope Hospital in Chennai. It is suspected that contacted the disease from a patient. 

Soon after his death, his mortal remains were being taken to TP Chatram burial ground in Kilpauk for burial, but close to 40 residents gathered there to protest. Without any luck in convincing the protesters, they proceeded to Velangadu burial ground where a similar thing happened and a mob of around 70 people gathered and attacked the officials with sticks and stones. In this attack, many officials were injured, including the ambulance drivers; additionally, it is alleged that the corpse of Dr Hercules was also hit with these stones!

They had to go back to the burial ground with police protection and buried the body in a haste and with no JCB, they had to fill in the grave with their hands. The New Indian Express reported that police on Monday arrested 20 people for damaging the ambulance and creating a ruckus at the burial ground. Cases have been booked under Sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 341 (wrongful restraint), Tamil Nadu Private Property Prevention of Damage and Loss Act.

A rather gut wrenching incident in a country where just a few weeks ago, people were clapping in their balconies a few days for health care workers and their service. But is it illegal to deny someone their last rites? Does a deceased person lose their right by the virtue of being dead? Do deceased persons have rights in India? Let us explore these questions.

Right to decent burial

A division bench comprising of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and M Nirmal Kumar took suo moto cognizance of this incident. The bench stated, “Citizens are not expected to take law and order into their hands and if it is so, would definitely lead to anarchy. There is likelihood of similar kind of incidents to occur in future also.”

The court issued notices to the Tamil Nadu government as well at the police and observed that “the scope and ambit of Article 21 includes the right to have a decent burial.” The court also invoked and highlighted section 297 of the Indian Penal Code which deals with the offence of Trespassing on burial places:

Whoever, with the inten­tion of wounding the feelings of any person, or of insulting the religion of any person, or with the knowledge that the feelings of any person are likely to be wounded, or that the religion of any person is likely to be insulted thereby, commits any trespass in any place of worship or on any place of sepulchre, or any place set apart from the performance of funeral rites or as a depository for the remains of the dead, or offers any indignity to any human corpse, or causes disturbance to any persons assembled for the performance of funeral ceremonies, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.

The bench also mentioned sections related to unlawful assemblies and the power of armed forces to disburse such unlawful assemblies, indicating the strict cognizance of the matter by the court. The court also emphasized that eh guidelines that have been issued by the Central government from to time in relation to Covid-19 are expected to be known to the citizens and followed thoroughly.

Rights of the dead in India

The law in India does not expressly state that burial/cremation of the dead is the responsibility of the state but it is interpreted by courts again and again. However, there are other rights of the dead that are expressly stated in our laws.

Section 404 of the IPC recognizes dishonest misappropriation of the dead man’s property as an offence. Further, section 499 of IPC which deals with defamation, stipulates that libel or slander against a dead person also constitutes the offence of criminal defamation.

Section 503 of the IPC which defines criminal intimidation, includes threatening a person with injuring the reputation of a dead person dear to him, as an offence.

Section 297 of the IPC, as mentioned above, deals with the offence of trespassing on burial grounds etc., states that if any person offers any indignity to any human corpse, or causes disturbance to any persons assembled for the performance of funeral ceremonies, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.

International covenants and laws on rights of the dead

Geneva Convention 1949 :  Article 16 of this covenant states, “As far as military consideration allow, each party to the conflict shall facilitate the steps taken to protect the killed – against ill treatments.”

Australia’s Defence Force Manual, 1994 states, “The remains of the dead , regardless of whether they are combatants , non- combatants,protected persons or civilians are to be respected, in particular their honour, family rights, religions convictions and practices and manners and customs at all times they shall be humanely treated.”

The UK Military Manual, 1958 states “The dead must be protected against maltreatment.”

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights: The 2005 resolution on human rights and forensic science underlined the importance of dignified handling of human remains, including their proper management and disposal as well as of respect for the needs of families.

Judicial precedents

The right to dignity prevails even after death, is clear from the following precedents set by the Supreme Court of India.

In S. Sethu Raja vs The Chief Secretary [W.P.(MD)No.3888 of 2007 decided on 28 August, 2007], the petitioner had brought to the court’s attention, the Supreme Court’s stand on right to accord decent burial or cremation to a dead body. The Supreme Court’s stand could be interpreted from its decision in Ram Sharan Autyanuprasi Vs. Union of India (AIR 1989 Supreme Court 549) in which it held thus,

“13……..It is true that life in its expanded horizons today includes all that give meaning to a man’s life including his tradition, culture and heritage and protection of that heritage in its full measure would certainly come within the encompass of an expanded concept of Art.21 of the Constitution.”

Further, the apex court, in Pt.Parmanand Katara Vs. Union of India (1995 (3) SCC 248) had observed thus,

“We agree with the petitioner that right to dignity and fair treatment under Article 21 of the Constitution of India is not only available to a living man but also to his body after his death”

In Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan Vs. Union of India (AIR 2002 SC 554) the Supreme Court had upheld the right of a homeless deceased to have a decent burial as per their religious belief and the corresponding obligation of the State towards such people.

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