E-Paper
Meet Panchkula MC staffer who has overseen cremation of over 700 Covid-19 victims
The 28-year-old cremation ground supervisor has not taken an off for a whole year, working 24x7 on a salary of just ₹14,000
By 1 in the afternoon, 14 bodies are halfway through cremation, five have just been set ablaze, three more pyres are being prepared, while two bodies covered in white lay at some distance.
At the gate of the cremation ground in Sector 28, Panchkula, one more body of a Covid-19 victim lies in an ambulance as the driver asks directions to the graveyard.
The flow of bodies does not end here. And the supervisor, Surinder Singh, walks among the corpses and pyres without fear…. or even a PPE kit.
Singh, and his team members, say working with a PPE kit on, amid the heat and flames rising from the pyres, gets too difficult.
“In March 2020, I cremated the first body of a woman who died of Covid-19. Since then, I have been assigned the task of cremating all Covid-19 bodies,” says the 28-year-old staffer of the Panchkula municipal corporation (MC).
Since March last year, Singh has helped cremate over 700 bodies, which belonged not only to Panchkula residents but also to those who came from other states to get treatment here but lost the battle to Covid-19. Of these 700, as many as 200 were created in the month of May alone, Singh adds.
A day in the life of a cremator
At 8am, Singh leaves from his house in Mohali and reaches the mortuary of the Sector-6 civil hospital in Panchkula. After taking the details of the corpses, he calls their families and coordinates for cremation or burial. He then visits other hospitals in Panchkula, gathering details of others who have died of the virus.
While commuting from one hospital to another, Singh arranges for ambulances to ferry the dead to the cremation ground, meanwhile instructing his team to prepare the pyres.
“Last year, there were only one or two cremations a day, or weeks would pass without one. But now we are cremating at least 20 bodies a day,” says Singh, whose phone doesn’t stop ringing.
Singh earns only ₹14,000 a month, but has been working 24x7 without an off for a year. “I do get stressed at times so I pray. Initially, I was unable to sleep, but now I feel numb. I have small kids, elderly parents and a wife, but it’s a service and I cannot say no to it,” he says.
“I don’t even feel like eating here. People are dying, how can one eat?” asks Singh, who reaches home by 9pm every day.
A man in white, who introduces himself as an army officer and one of the family members of a victim, is full of praises for Singh: “I have never seen such a dedicated man. He is on duty 24x7.”
‘Hasn’t taken off in a year’
The assistant sanitary inspector, Ajay Kumar Sood, who is also the in-charge, says: “Surinder has not taken a single off in the last one year. He is a very dedicated and hardworking employee.”
Former MC commissioner RK Singh says: “The team is very dedicated. During these tough times, we have been holding meetings to boost their morale and how they should work without getting emotionally impacted.”
Last year, four helpers were assigned to Singh; the number was reduced to two, but it has again been increased to six. One of them is Rahul, a 27-year-old resident of Gandhi Colony, Panchkula, who has also been working here since the pandemic began. A daily wager and father to three daughters, Rahul says that it is work, which has to be done: “If we won’t, then who will?”
Wearing only N-95 masks, Surinder and Rahul get up to burn the two bodies in white, that have been awaiting their turn.
