The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : All-women team mans crematorium

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Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

All-women team mans crematorium

S. Sandeep Kumar

A team of women helps conduct cremations or burials at the Nallavagu Shamshan Vatika in Chandrayangutta

Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

Out of domain: Women preparing for funeral rites at a burial ground in Chandrayangutta on Tuesday.—

HYDERABAD: A group of women chatting and sitting huddled in a group may be an ordinary sight. But not at this Hindu crematorium in Chandrayangutta. With non-chalance writ large on their faces, they spur themselves into action the moment the telephone rings.

With mechanical precision, the women divide the work among themselves. Some prepare the pyre, while some busy themselves in helping the grieving relatives to perform the last rites. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, except the fact that it is an all-women team that helps conduct cremations or burials in Nallavagu Shamshan Vatika.

Striking feature

The detached demeanour of these seven women is striking for a first time visitor to the crematorium. “I have been working here for a long time. I do not even know for how many years,” says Laxmamma, the eldest of the seven women. Some have been working in the crematorium for over a decade, some for two decades even. “It’s our profession. We are third generation workers here,” they say.

The women’s group is in no way lesser than the men who work at crematoria and in helping the relatives of the dead, in performing the rites.

“We prepare the pyre within half an hour. We dig a grave within two hours,” says Janaki Bai in a matter-of-fact tone. Her colleagues, Radha Bai, Anjamma, Satyamma, Ratnamma and Vijayalaxmi nod in unison.

How does it feel to work at the crematorium? “It’s like a doctor working in mortuary. We got used to it.” After their collective work, earnings are shared equally in the evening.

“It might look odd to you, but my wife Vijayalaxmi is working here for the last seven years,” the crematorium in charge R. Kishtaiah points out. And when unclaimed or bodies of orphans are brought, the women do not charge any money.

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