No money to perform last rites, Chhattisgarh woman donates son’s body to hospital

An impoverished tribal woman in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district donated the body of her 21-year son, who died in an accident, to a hospital in Jagdalpur as she did not have any money to transport his body to her village for his last rites. The victim identified as Baaman of Kutulnaar village was reportedly hit by an unidentified vehicle on Monday. He was taken to a hospital in Jagadalpur but passed away on Thursday. “I had no money to perform the last rites and to transport my son’s body,” said Sudhari Bai, while explaining the reason for donating her son’s body. “No one helped us. A person at the hospital suggested that we donate the body and we agreed.” Her village is about 20 km away from Jagadalpur. Sudhari Bai’s husband had died earlier and Baaman was her only child with whom she was living. The young man was a marginal farmer. Mangal Singh, in-charge of the mortuary of Jagdalpur medical college, said he had asked the family to donate the body to the medical college. While the news once again highlighted the grinding poverty in a remote tribal area, authorities saw virtue in the helpless mother’s act of donating her son’s body. “The media is looking only at the negative aspect of this act. Body donation is rarely done in this area...This is a positive thing which the lady has done,” said Dhananjay Dewangan, the collector of Jagdalpur. When asked why authorities did not provide monetary help to her for transporting the body for the last rites, the collector said, “I don’t know how this happened.” Source: Hindustan Times