- Title: As Delhi families bury coronavirus victims, a gravedigger watches on
- Date: 7th May 2020
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (MAY 6, 2020) (REUTERS) SHAMEEM SITTING AT GRAVEYARD BLACK CAT IN GRAVEYARD SHAMEEM PUTTING ON SHOE COVERS AND HAND SANITISER (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) GRAVEDIGGER, MOHAMMAD SHAMEEM, SAYING: "My biggest fear is that we might have to touch it (the coronavirus patient's body). That is our main fear and we try to stay as far away as possible from it. Sometimes, dead bodies are brought with only one health worker, one driver and one family member - a lot of people are so afraid of these dead bodies that they don't even accompany them. In such cases, we have to help them - that is what we are afraid of." SHAMEEM WALKING AMID TOMBSTONES IN GRAVEYARD (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) GRAVEDIGGER, MOHAMMAD SHAMEEM, SAYING: "If everyone refuses (to bury the bodies), someone still has to do it…. You can't just throw them away. They are also humans. The (graveyard) committee said that and some other people also said it and then, most importantly, there has to be some humanity inside us also. If even we back off from doing it, then who will do it?" GROUP OF MUSLIM MEN IN THE GRAVEYARD FOR BURIAL (NOT A CORONAVIRUS-RELATED DEATH) AMBULANCE ARRIVING WITH TWO BODIES OF PEOPLE WHO DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS RELATIVES PUTTING ON PROTECTIVE SUITS TWO MEN WITH FACE MASKS LOOKING ON HEALTH WORKERS AND RELATIVES MOVING BODY FROM AMBULANCE RELATIVE STANDING RELATIVES OFFERING LAST PRAYER BEFORE BURIAL RELATIVES CARRYING BODY SHAMEEM INSTRUCTING RELATIVES AS THEY LOWER BODY INTO GRAVE RELATIVES AND HEALTH WORKER LOWERING BODY INTO GRAVE (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) BROTHER OF MAN WHO DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS, MOHAMMAD FARAZ, SAYING: "If one loses his brother then obviously one is sad about that. It is so painful that my brother died and in his last moments we could not even talk to him, it is so painful." VARIOUS OF SHAMEEM DIRECTING EXCAVATOR COVERING GRAVE SHAMEEM'S FEET WALKING AFTER BURIAL (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) GRAVEDIGGER, MOHAMMAD SHAMEEM, SAYING: "First of all, I am not entering my house. I enter inside my house only once during the night after removing all my clothes and keeping them outside the house, and then taking a proper bath to clean myself thoroughly. The second precaution I am taking is that I am staying away from my children. I am not keeping my children with me (in our home). I have sent them to their grandparents.'" SHAMEEM'S WIFE, HAJRA, BRINGING HIM A GLASS OF WATER SHAMEEM DRINKING WATER HAJRA COOKING ON EARTHEN STOVE HAJRA COOKING / SHAMEEM SITTING ON COT AT A DISTANCE FIRE BURNING (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) SHAMEEM'S WIFE, HAJRA, SAYING: "I am afraid, every day I am keeping my fast and praying during Namaz for the safety of my husband from this disease, that he should not be affected by this disease. He has a job to do and if he does not do that, then how will we take care of our children?" VARIOUS OF HAJRA COOKING VEGETABLES SHAMEEM LIFTING COT / PUTTING ON GLOVES AS HE GETS READY TO GO OUT
- Embargoed: 21st May 2020 12:53
- Keywords: Coronavirus Gravedigger Graveyard Muslim New Delhi graves tombstones
- Location: NEW DELHI, INDIA
- City: NEW DELHI, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001CCXJTC7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: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.
"A lot of people are so afraid of these dead bodies that they don't even accompany them. In such cases, we have to help them," he said.
On Wednesday (May 6), two bodies arrived in an ambulance. The families pool their strongest men together to lift the bodies.
They hesitantly put on the protective equipment brought with them.
One of the victims, 33-year-old dialysis patient Mohammad Fayzan, died on Tuesday (May 5).
"It is so painful that my brother died and in his last moments we could not even talk to him, it is so painful," said his brother, Faraz.
Shameem helped advise the group from a distance.
Normally, he is paid for each grave he and his men dig, a fee of 100 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.
He gestured to the driver to round the earth as it piled onto Fayzan's body, and turns away.
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 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.
Still, Shameem says he has little choice but to persevere.
"You can't just throw them away. They are also humans," he said. "There has to be some humanity inside us also. If even we back off from doing it, then who will do it?"
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