Hyderabad: Group of volunteers ensure dignified last rites to COVID-19 victims

Hyderabad: A group of good Samaritans drawn from diverse professions in the city are volunteering to ensure that those who succumbed to Covid-19 are given dignified last rites.

Donning personal protective equipment, these motely group of people are offering to lend a hand and tend to the last rites of Covid-19 victims whose bodies have been abandoned by their kin, who have turned away either due to a lack of resources or who did not find space to cremate or bury them.

Speaking to ANI, Zahed, a member of the group, said, “We try to conduct dignified last rites for the people who lost their lives due to COVID and their families have turned away. We take such bodies into our custody and perform their last rites.”

Sarfaraz, another individual from the group said that the deceased, whose bodies have been left unattended without conducting last rites, are brought by the group members and then the last rites are performed.

According to the official data, the death toll due to COVID in Telanagana has gone up to 3,469 while there are 22,133 active cases of COVID-19 in the state.