Doms: The curse of being ‘untouchables’

It was the 1970s. Alal Dom, a 12-year-old boy in Madaripur cycled towards the district morgue where his father worked. His father was the only worker there at the time. 

When Alal reached the morgue, his father was about to start dissecting a dead body that the police had brought in. The father asked Alal to bring him a glass of water. 

"I rented the cycle for Tk1. I went there to get the money from my father," Alal said. "When I returned with the water, the police officer – as my father requested him – said that he was taking me to prison for the bicycle I rented was stolen. 

My father actually had hidden the cycle behind the morgue. The police officer said that he will not take me to custody if I helped my father in the sewing work." 

The idea of his father for staging this drama was not, obviously, to frame his son. It was a trick to rid Alal of the fear of the morgue and corpses. 

"I was very scared of the work my father did. But this is what we do to live. Besides my father didn't have a helping hand," Alal said, "So when I was helping my father in sewing the dead body, it was not the stinking corpse that scared me, it was only the thought of the stolen cycle that haunted me instead." 

This is how he got to work in the morgue since his childhood. Just like his father learned it from his grandfather. 

Alal Dom has been working as a mortuary assistant (which is called Dom in Bangla) in the Madaripur district morgue for over 40 years now. The work of a mortuary assistant is to dissect dead bodies under the supervision of a forensic doctor. 

The English equivalent for the word Dom, considering the work they do, is perhaps 'diener'. It is derived from German Leichendiener which means corpse servant. But 'mortuary assistant' is the better English expression, which is more widely used in the morgues. 

Sometimes they are also called 'morgue assistants'. 

In Bangla, however, Dom is not only a profession, it is a people – one of the key communities that constitute Bangladesh's Harijan people. You will find Dom people all across the country. 

Engaged in myriads of low-key professions like sweepers, cleaners etc, the key identity of Doms have been of 'diener' or mortuary assistants since the British period as they have traditionally attended to the corpse in the morgues. 

"I dissected thousands of bodies. We start dissecting a body at the stomach and then at the scalp. We send the liver, kidneys, stomachs etc. to Dhaka for further tests," Alal explained his job. "We may not have a dead body every day, but sometimes we may have several corpses to dissect in a single day." 

The Doms have been extremely useful in our health sector, but strangely, they have been socially discriminated against as 'untouchables' as fear, abhorrence and negligence stemming from the mainstream communities for the work they do have always been lifelong companions of the Dom people. 

But the Dom people say that the useful medical work that made them distanced from mainstream society is no longer a guaranteed job for them. The Doms we interviewed insist that the right to work in the morgue remains for the Dom community on the basis of their history and contribution to this department. 

'Freelance' Doms with high instinct about things dead 

In the capital's Kamalapur TT Para sweepers' colony, over a dozen Dom families reside and Khokon Lal is their representative leader. 

Khokon said that he also took training in the Sirajganj morgue, but never really got the job. "I almost became a Dom, all I needed was a hand [supportive connection]. But it didn't happen."

Although Khokon and other Doms in the sweepers' colony didn't get a morgue job, he shared with us his experiences as a freelancer Dom from time to time. 

Around 18 years ago, RAB took him to Shahjahanpur. A murdered body was buried in the Shahjahanpur graveyard. But the men in the uniform couldn't trace where the body was buried. 

"I told them that you have to give us wine first. We are freemen, we can drink. We have cards. They gave the drink, and we set forth to the graveyard all drunk," Khokon said. "I spotted tiny mounds of dirt in the soil at the graveyard the likes of what is created by rodents, or dirt worms. I told them there is a dead body here." 

How did you realise the dead body was there? 

"Since it was buried recently, a smell was breaking out through the mounds of dirt. Soon we started digging, we found the wooden box that was carrying the dead body." 

We asked Khokon how they handle the stench of a corpse. "The stench of the corpse has got into our habit. We don't feel it. You cannot tolerate the stench of a corpse but I will. The wine helps us get used to it. Even right now as I am talking to you, I just had drunk. It has become part of our life." 

Besides freelancing work, Khokon said the Doms at the colony also take care of the bodies of those who die by suicide on the railway and the animals "out of mercy." 

The highly important role the Doms play in the medical field 

"Mortuary assistants are very important to us. They help us in various activities like dissections, reconstruction, sewing, cleaning the dead bodies and the cleanliness of the morgue. These are very important tasks," said Dr Kazi Golam Mukhlesur Rahman, Professor and Head of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at Dhaka Medical College. 

"We do the autopsy, but Doms help us in the process. Suppose when we need the dissection of the scalp, we cannot do it without Dom's help," Dr Rahman said. 

We also asked him about the Dom community's grievances over appointing other community people as mortuary assistants. He said, "Appointment procedure is a different thing. We don't have a hand in here. It is up to the ministry or our principal's office." 

However, describing the field of work as a 'specialised field,' Dr Rahman said, "None becomes a mortuary assistant by birth. It is not like this will have to be done only by the member of this community. Anyone can get engaged, trained and do this."  

"It is also not like there is a good training mechanism. They dissect the bodies the way we instruct. They learn it gradually. The problem is people don't want to work here. Once the Muslims wouldn't come to work here at all. The educated don't want to come here," he added. 

Gojan Lal, a leader of Bangladesh Harijan Oikya Parishad based in TT Para Sweepers Colony in Kamlapur said there was previously a tradition, which he claimed, was written into the institutions' recruitment policies that the mortuary assistants would be from the Dom community. 

Photo: Noor-A-Alam

We reached out to Dhaka Medical College morgue's famous mortuary assistant Mohammad Sikandar who is now been promoted to an MLSS and works as the morgue-in-charge. He changed his name from Romesh Dom after he converted to Islam. He is famed for dissecting thousands of bodies in his three-decades-long career at the DMC morgue. 

When asked about what Harijan leader Gojan Lal, Sikandar said, "What he said is true. I cannot wipe out the blood of my father, or my grandfather. It is established since the British period that the Harijan people will do the mortuary works." 

"But if there is a qualified person from another community," Sikandar said, "Why not? If a person outside the Dom community wants to do this, why not? Everyone has the right." 

Alal Dom, however, is not happy about the authority outsourcing a helping hand from outside his community.  "Truly speaking, this has been our traditional job. I just cannot teach this to a random outsider," Alal said.

According to Gojan Lal, an estimated 2 lakh Doms reside in Bangladesh at present.  

A life looked down upon 

So, in return for all the important roles the Doms play, how much do they earn? 

The fortunate few of the Doms who became fourth-grade government employees can earn up to Tk25,000 monthly. And where they work as freelancers, they are paid based on the day's job. But in general, the community members who work as freelance cleaners and sweepers earn way less. 

Besides, they spend jobless days as well. If you visit a community, the TT Para, for example, the crowded habitat and the environment, the odour will tell you about the lifestyle they live in. 

Apart from all this, the Doms we interviewed said that they are highly looked down upon in society for the very mortuary job that is vital in forensic department functionaries.

As a result, the member of this community largely lives in a shadow. You will struggle to make one admit that he is a Dom. 

Why is it so? "You know why. People think this is a dirty job, and deem us as untouchable," Sikandar said. "But no work is small unless I indulge in crimes." 

Alal Dom described a variety of discrimination the member of his community endured in society. "We cannot work in a restaurant. If our kids go to work in a restaurant they don't get hired if 'Dom' identity is revealed or fired if they come to know about it later."

Photo: Noor-A-Alam

"If some of our boys run a tea or cigarette store, people don't come because they are the children of Dom. The people look down upon us. What to do. They kick at our stomachs," Alal said. 

Alal, however, is proud of what they do and wants his kids and people to continue doing this. "We want our kids to stick to our tradition. It is we who help medical students when studying a dead body. We are Dom nation. We cannot survive, or do anything else except being Dom," Alal added. 

Professor Dr Kazi Golam Mukhlesur Rahman said, "People may even get scared of the forensic doctors as we deal with dead bodies. It is actually a matter of social perspective. What we or the mortuary assistants do is about exploring how a person died – people are helpless after death –  and helping the law. It is a very important task to establish justice.  

No work is small. Someone has to do the job. People look down upon jobs like these, this has to change."