This Sikh family performed last rites for unclaimed COVID-19 patients. Then they caught the virus

Jatindra Shunty, head of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa (SBS) organization, inside one of their ambulances. Photo courtesy of SBS.

NEW DELHI — When India started reporting COVID-19 deaths in March, many people told 59-year-old Jatindra Shunty to abandon his mission of performing last rites for the unclaimed bodies of the poor to save himself and his family from the sometimes fatal virus.

Fired with courage, compassion and a sense of service from his Sikh faith, the Delhi-based social worker pushed back by doubling his efforts to clean bodies and perform last rites for victims during the pandemic.

During the pandemic, many people in India have been unwilling to clean the bodies of even their deceased relatives because of the stigma, fear and lack of resources. That is the time when groups like Shaheed Bhagat Singh Seva Dal, led by Jatindra Shunty, step in to help cremate or bury bodies according to the family’s religious traditions. He aims to give dignity in rest particularly to people who were denied dignity through much of their lives, living in the trenches of society.

Volunteers for SBS who pick up corpses in private ambulances to clean them and perform last rites. Photo courtesy of SBS.

With the help of around two dozen volunteers, Shunty’s family has so far performed the last rites of more than 270 coronavirus patients— Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and one Christian. Sikhs and Hindus prefer cremation, while Muslims and Christians believe in burying their dead. Shunty’s 26-year-old son Jyotjeet, who returned from London in 2016 after doing his masters in Disaster Management, is helping him.

Shunty said his friends ask him why he’s doing this work and say handling COVID-19 bodies is like inviting death into your house.

“But, I told them that I have no fear, I draw my strength from helping the needy,” Shunty said.

One incident stands out in Shunty’s mind, motivating him to remain dedicated to this cause. In 1995, when he was at a cremation ground in Delhi, he saw a couple collecting pieces of wood near a cremated body.

“I asked them, why are you stealing the wood?” he recalled. “They said they don’t have money to buy wood for cremating their son. That moment I found my true calling; to perform last rites of poor and unclaimed bodies. The gross inequality in our society struck me.”

A cremation ground in Delhi where SBS volunteers performed last rites for Hindu and Sikh deceased. Photo courtesy of SBS.

He said on one hand there are people with a lot of money, those who construct big houses and spend lavishly on marriages, while on the other hand there are the poor who don’t even have resources to buy wood for cremating their loved ones.

After months of this service, in June, Shunty along with his entire family including Jyotjeet tested positive for COVID-19.  Shunty was hospitalized and put on a ventilator for two days while Jyotjeet was kept in home isolation.

“The first six days were tough, I thought I won’t live,” Shunty said. “I gave my phones to my volunteers and told them to attend all the calls. I told them even if I die, don’t stop performing last rites of the bodies.”

Jyotjeet Shunty. Photo courtesy of SBS.

Jyotjeet was infected with COVID-19 and typhoid simultaneously. “But I had this satisfaction that I did not catch the infection sitting at home,” he said.

After around a fortnight, all the family members recovered and returned home. A grand welcome awaited them. People in the neighborhood and friends were waiting to receive them.

“The prayers of people have really saved us,” Shunty said. “My phone crashed with congratulatory messages. There is a mosque and a temple near my house where everyday Muslims and Hindus prayed for our recovery.”

He said when he returned home, a Muslim couple came to see him and told him that they were praying five times every day for his quick recovery.

The outbreak of the pandemic has thrown new challenges before them. It is not just the unclaimed bodies and bodies of the poor that they have to cater to, but also abandoned, deceased COVID-19 patients.

Jyotjeet said last month a wealthy man came in a big car wearing gold rings and told him to perform the last rites of his father who died of COVID-19.

“The body is lying in the hospital, we have come to know that you cremate COVID-positive bodies free of cost, and we are ready to pay whatever money you want to perform the last rites of my father,” Jyotjeet said the man told him.

The man told him that he does not want to see the face of his dead father and go near his body for fear of catching the infection and asked Jyotjeet to take a picture of his father and send it to him before performing the last rites.

“After cremating the body, we got in touch with him again and told him to collect the ashes which he refused to do as well,” Jyotjeet said. “Finally we ourselves took the ashes to Haridwar in Central India and immersed them in the river Ganga.”

Jatindra Shunty. Photo courtesy of SBS.

Even in quarantine, Shunty keeps working.

“I am in touch with volunteers online asking them where the vehicles are going, where the bodies are being cremated,” he said.

India now ranks third in the world among countries for COVID-19 cases, after the U.S. and Brazil, with more than 2.3 million positive cases and more than 46,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to India’s Ministry of Health and Welfare. The numbers are likely much higher than is recorded. Almost half of India’s population is under various types of lockdowns.

There is a fear that India could be in the grip of a double epidemic, a combination of COVID-19 and dengue, a mosquito-borne illness that can be fatal and spikes seasonally, starting in July and August.

Zaffar Iqbal is a journalist based in Kashmir India. He has reported for 18 years on armed encounters, environmental issues, crime, politics, culture and human rights. He’s formerly the bureau chief of Jammu and Kashmir for NDTV.