The Hindu : New Delhi News : Ensuring a dignified last journey

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 27, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Ensuring a dignified last journey

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 26. It all started with a young man, shocked and touched by the manner in which a poor, old father collecting half-burnt wood from a funeral pyre at Delhi's Nigambodh Ghat was beaten up by the public, mistaking him for a thief.

Jitendra Singh Shunty and his friends who were witness to the entire episode rescued the old man, paid him money to buy wood and helped him perform the last rites of his son, for whose pyre he was collecting the wood. Shaken by the incident, Shunty left the cremation ground with the resolution to help "unclaimed bodies'' finish their last journey with dignity.

Many years after he began his work, Shunty today has made helping people his full time job. And the Sewa Dal he started in Delhi was so good that it has now spread to Mumbai and will be going to Kerala soon to help them tackle the problem of unclaimed bodies. Excited about the fact that he will now be able to help more people in the country, Shunty claims his dream was to "provide a network in the country where those who live with nobody to take care of them are not left unattended in death''.

"Member of a well-off family which runs a transport business, the incident of the old man got me thinking about something I had never thought about before. For me poverty was a reality, but I had never seen something so cruel and I could not get it out of my mind. I knew I had to do something about the feeling of guilt and shame that the incident had left behind. It was also shocking to think that in a country where death is seen as a very important step toward a new life, many dead bodies weren't even given a proper burial,'' explained Shunty talking about how it all began.

And what began over six years ago, has now grown into a strong network of people and organisations. The group works with the police, and resident welfare associations to get information about unclaimed bodies or information about people who are too poor to pay for the cremation.

The Sewa Dal has so far performed rites of 550 unclaimed bodies and has also adopted various cremation grounds in the Capital. It is now in the process of expanding the good work.

"We have now also started providing hearse van service and are available 24 hours all round the year. And we take on bodies without thinking about their caste or religion. Death I have learned is a great leveller and it is not that only the poor are in need of our help. We are called in by people who want things arranged for them as their children and relatives are away and they aren't strong enough to do all the running around,'' explained Shunty.

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