Dana Manjhi, who walked with wife’s body, in Delhi to receive aid from Bahrain

Dana Majhi, a tribal man who was forced to carry his wife’s body on his shoulders for nearly 12km after hospital authorities declined to give him an ambulance or a hearse, was likely to meet Bahrain government in Delhi on Thursday, days after it offered financial help to him.

Dana Majhi, who walked for 10 kilometres with his wife’s corpse on his shoulder in Odisha’s Kalahandi district last month, will be in Delhi on Thursday to receive a cheque of Rs 9 lakh - an assistance promised by the Prime Minister of Bahrain.

Dana Majhi walked around 10km with his wife’s body on his shoulder as he failed to get a vehicle to transport it from a government hospital in the backward district of Kalahandi where she died.(Video grab/OTV)

The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar, where his three daughters have been admitted recently for free education, has brought him to the Capital to collect the cheque. The amount will be saved as a fixed deposit in the name of his daughters - Chandini (13), Soni (7) and Pramila (4).

Read: Odisha incidents remind us that State expenditure on health needs to improve

Majhi’s 42-year-old wife, Amang Dei, died of tuberculosis at the district hospital at Bhawanipatna. His daughter Chandini accompanied him till a local reporter spotted the duo.

They called up the district collector and arranged an ambulance for the remaining part of the journey to Melghara village, around 60 kilometre away from Bhawanipatna.

Since the video of Majhi carrying his wife’s body made headlines, donations have started pouring in for him. Bahrain’s PM Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa was reportedly moved by his plight and offered to help the grieving family. A report in ‘Gulf Daily News’ earlier said the premier was upset by the news and he felt “he had to do something to help”.