As Delhi families bury coronavirus victims, a gravedigger watches on
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Wednesday
June 29, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2022
As Delhi families bury coronavirus victims, a gravedigger watches on

South Asia

Reuters
07 May, 2020, 05:20 pm
Last modified: 07 May, 2020, 05:26 pm

Related News

  • Indian man beheaded for supporting Nupur Sharma, 2 held
  • White House says discussions have begun with India on Russia gas cap implementation
  • Mumbai building collapse kills at least 19 with more feared trapped
  • Eight Indian fishing trawlers and 135 crews detained
  • Arrest of Indian Muslim journalist sparks widespread outrage

As Delhi families bury coronavirus victims, a gravedigger watches on

Infections have crossed 50,000, with over 1,700 deaths in India, but the world’s second largest country has still to see the upward curve in infections begin to level off despite the government ordering a nationwide lockdown on March 25

Reuters
07 May, 2020, 05:20 pm
Last modified: 07 May, 2020, 05:26 pm
Mohammad Shameem, a 38-year-old grave digger, rests at the burial site for the victims who died from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), at a graveyard in New Delhi, India, May 6, 2020. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Mohammad Shameem, a 38-year-old grave digger, rests at the burial site for the victims who died from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), at a graveyard in New Delhi, India, May 6, 2020. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

Belonging to the third generation in a family of Indian cemetery workers, Mohammad Shameem had little other choice in life than to dig graves.

But as the novel coronavirus makes his work too dangerous, he now watches on as families in India's capital bury victims themselves. Sometimes, though, there aren't enough mortuary workers and men to lift the body. Then Shameem has to help.

"I am always tense," the 38-year-old father of four said while waiting for the next corpse to be brought for burial.

"I wonder what will happen when the body comes. I hope that I won't have to touch it."

Infections have crossed 50,000, with over 1,700 deaths in India, but the world's second largest country has still to see the upward curve in infections begin to level off despite the government ordering a nationwide lockdown on March 25.

And experts worry that the nation's overstretched medical facilities - and mortuaries - will be unable to cope if cases surge.

Shameem remembers burying the victims of a plane crash at Jadid Qabristan, an Islamic graveyard by the ruins of Delhi's city walls.

But the fear surrounding the coronavirus epidemic, and its scale, is beyond anything he has experienced since began working with his now-retired father two decades ago.

He waits for bodies in a cleared patch of wasteland abutting the main cemetery, where more than seventy suspected and confirmed coronavirus victims have been buried since the first death in the capital a month ago.

Broken bits of slate and twigs mark the graves. Others are unmarked altogether.

When deaths began to rise, a doctor from a local hospital got in touch with the owners of the graveyard, and they passed on Shameem's number.

He has sent his children to stay with their grandparents, in the house two doors down, though he still has little formal training in the precautions he and his family should take.

"Before we didn't know what we were doing at all," he said, touching his face with a gloved hand.

Normally, he is paid for each grave he and his men dig.

"You will laugh when I tell you how much," he said, before revealing his fee is 100 Indian rupees ($1.32) per body.

Now, the double-depth graves are dug by a yellow excavator. Only one driver is prepared to come, Shameem said.

On Wednesday, two bodies arrived in an ambulance, a handful of male relatives following on scooters behind. The families pool their strongest men together to lift the bodies.

They hesitantly put on the protective equipment brought with them. The tallest man's suit kept popping open as they prayed.

One of the victims, 33-year-old dialysis patient Mohammad Fayzan, died on Tuesday.

"If there was no coronavirus all the people would have come. But now they can't," his brother, Faraz said through tears.

At the last moment, another brother ran unprotected down to the grave, to see Mohammad Fayzan's face for a final time.

Shameem called to the men to throw their suits into the grave.

He gestured to the driver to round the earth as it piled onto Fayzan's body, and turned away.

Coronavirus chronicle

India

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Apparel exports see 50% growth in  June amid high inflation in EU, USA
    Apparel exports see 50% growth in June amid high inflation in EU, USA
  • Infographic: TBS
    A golf affair and the birth of a lens industry
  • Strengthen and decentralise IMED: CPD
    Strengthen and decentralise IMED: CPD

MOST VIEWED

  • PM to discuss Rohingya repatriation in upcoming India visit: Foreign secy
    PM to discuss Rohingya repatriation in upcoming India visit: Foreign secy
  • Photo of World Bank. Photo: Collected
    WB approves $1.03 billion for Bangladesh and Nepal to improve regional trade
  • Photo: BBC
    'Impossible situation' for Sri Lankans struggling for petrol
  • PTI foreign funding case: Documents submitted in US and Pakistan are different
    PTI foreign funding case: Documents submitted in US and Pakistan are different
  • People wait in a queue after receiving tokens to buy petrol due to fuel shortage, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
    Sri Lanka rushes to find fuel as shortages hit schools, workers
  • BJP leader Nupur Sharma. Photo: Collected
    Indian man beheaded for supporting Nupur Sharma, 2 held

Related News

  • Indian man beheaded for supporting Nupur Sharma, 2 held
  • White House says discussions have begun with India on Russia gas cap implementation
  • Mumbai building collapse kills at least 19 with more feared trapped
  • Eight Indian fishing trawlers and 135 crews detained
  • Arrest of Indian Muslim journalist sparks widespread outrage

Features

Mahathir accused financial titans of seeking to reverse decades of economic development that propelled tens of millions into the middle class. Photo: Bloomberg

George Soros, Mahathir and the legacy of 1997

33m | Panorama
 If Bangladesh produces and exports high-value-added MMF products right now, we can increase our total export by around 25% in value. Photo: Mumit M

Time ripe for Bangladesh RMG sector to focus more on man-made fibres

4h | Panorama
Human Library Bangladesh has organised so far nine sessions; eight have been held in different parts of Dhaka and one in Khulna. Photo: Courtesy

Human Library Bangladesh: Where the halls come alive with human voices

5h | Panorama
Abortion is a part of healthcare. Photo: Bloomberg

Abortion is healthcare and women’s rights are human rights

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Archeological artefacts getting ruined locked in store room

Archeological artefacts getting ruined locked in store room

3h | Videos
Photo: TBS

WB to give Bangladesh $18b IDA loans in next 5yrs

5h | Videos
Why teachers are being humiliated again and again?

Why teachers are being humiliated again and again?

17h | Videos
After Bangabandhu Bridge, will Padma Bridge change economy again?

After Bangabandhu Bridge, will Padma Bridge change economy again?

18h | Videos

Most Read

1
Padma Bridge from satellite. Photo: Screengrab
Bangladesh

Padma Bridge from satellite 

2
Photo: TBS
Bangladesh

Motorcycles banned on Padma Bridge 

3
Japan cancels financing Matarbari coal project phase 2
Bangladesh

Japan cancels financing Matarbari coal project phase 2

4
Photo: Courtesy
Corporates

Gree AC being used in all parts of Padma Bridge project

5
Photo: TBS
Infrastructure

Gains from Padma Bridge to cross $10b, hope experts

6
Desco wanted to make a bold statement with their new head office building, a physical entity that would be a corporate icon. Photo: Courtesy
Habitat

Desco head office: When commitment to community and environment inspires architecture

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab
BENEATH THE SURFACE
An aerial view of a MRT Line-6 construction site. Work on the first elevated metro rail of Bangladesh is going on in full swing. A total of 16 elevated stations will connect the capital’s Uttara to Motijheel via Mirpur, Farmgate and Dhaka University. The photo was taken from Farmgate area recently. Photo: Rajib Dhar

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net