Allow burials of Christian Covid patients’ bodies in all cemeteries: Mumbai civic corporation

The civic body on Thursday issued a circular, directing all Christian cemeteries across the city to accept bodies of Covid 19 patients. The development comes around

The civic body on Thursday issued a circular, directing all Christian cemeteries across the city to accept bodies of Covid 19 patients. The development comes around a month after HT first reported that the family of a 61-year-old Christian woman from Mahim, who died of Covid-19, was forced to cremate her body because the cemetery refused to allow her burial.

HT Image

Members of the community contended that according to their religious practices, a body cannot be cremated and needs to be buried and that forced cremations hurt their religious sentiments. They also demanded that there should be ‘respectful burial’ of such bodies according to the religious practices.

In the circular, issued by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), signed by executive health office and assistant health officer (birth death), health officers across all the wards have been instructed to allow disposal of bodies as per guidelines of disposal issued by Government of India.

“As per the orders passed by Hon High Court, in view of the findings of the World Health Organization coupled with the orders passed by the Hon High Court has observed and clarified that there is no harm of whatsoever nature to the citizen, if Covid-19 deceased person is buried with proper precaution,” reads the circular, a copy of which is with HT.

The circular also adds that the burial grounds should be large enough so as to not create a possibility of spread of virus in the neighbouring areas.

Despite repeated attempts, BMC’s executive health officer Padmaja Keskar did not respond to HT’s call till the time of going to press.

Spokesperson from Archdiocese of Bombay said that if BMC passed an order, they would abide by it and all the cemeteries will follow the guidelines issued by them.

“We haven’t received a copy of the order yet. Once we receive it, we will circulate it. If there are all guidelines in place, it will be easy for us to follow, otherwise we will seek clarity from them,” said the spokesperson

Archdiocese of Bombay has around five lakh members under its jurisdiction. There are 122 churches of Roman Catholic denomination across Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Mahad, with around 60 cemeteries attached to them.

A day after HT’s report, BMC listed four cemeteries where bodies of Christians who die of Covid-19 can be buried. However, the community members demanded that all cemeteries should accept bodies of Covid-19 patients.

On May 21, BMC allowed the burial of a Covid-19 patient at a designated cemetery, which was the first burial of a member from the Christian community who died of the virus, as other coronavirus patients were cremated as per protocol.

“For the past three weeks, we have been running from pillar to post to ensure that all Christians get respectful burial. I came across 15-16 burials in the past three weeks, for which we had to fight, and around three were forcefully cremated. Despite BMC issuing a list of four cemeteries, two of them were not accepting burials outright. Hopefully, now all cemeteries accept these bodies,” said Cyril Dara, church activist, who fought for burials.

The Bombay high court had observed that there was no scientific data to support the claim that Covid-19 can spread through dead bodies and that the BMC had all the authority to demarcate the cemetery.