Covid-19: Daund brothers recount ordeal of the poor after cremating mother in Pune

All by themselves, it was the volunteers from the Muslim Mulnivasai Sangh who helped the brothers perform the cremation, after which the brothers decided to return home

Compelled by poverty, two brothers, aged 32 and 40 years, decided to walk back home from Pune to the rural town of Daund, some 80 km away, after cremating their mother who had died of Covid-19.

The brothers, who worked in the railway canteen at Daund railway station, were informed of their mother’s demise on June 2. Since she was a Covid-19 patient, they were not allowed to take her body to Daund but asked to perform the final rites in Pimpri-Chinchwad itself. (HT PHOTO)

On June 2, 62-year-old Hussanidi Shaikh, died of Covid-19 at the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital at Chinchwad. Hailing from Daund, she was first taken to doctors in the rural town and later to the Daund Civil Hospital where the family was advised that she be taken to a government hospital in Pune by ambulance.

“We then brought her to YCM Hospital and stayed in the hospital premises for two days as she was admitted to the Covid ward where we were not allowed to meet her,” said Fayaz Shaikh (32), who was accompanied by his elder brother Mehboob (40).

The brothers, who worked in the railway canteen at Daund railway station, were informed of their mother’s demise on June 2. Since she was a Covid-19 patient, they were not allowed to take her body to Daund but asked to perform the final rites in Pimpri-Chinchwad itself.

All by themselves, it was the volunteers from the Muslim Mulnivasai Sangh who helped the brothers perform the cremation, after which the brothers decided to return home.

Fayaz said that with the little money they had, they took an auto upto a certain distance and then had no option but to walk back to Daund. The volunteers who called the brothers after some two-three hours to check on their condition, soon learnt that they were walking back home after performing their mother’s cremation.

Alarmed by this, they contacted Republican Party of India (RPI) activists at Manjri to provide food to the brothers and also contacted the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator from Daund, Badshah Shaikh, who organised a car to bring them back to the town.

“We reached Daund in the car and were asked to stay in a quarantine centre,” Fayaz said. .

Expressing gratitude towards all the people who helped them reach home, Fayaz said poor rural patients and their relatives like them face an ordeal in big cities and some thought must be given to their situation.