Four sisters on Saturday carried their mother’s body to the cremation ground and performed the last rights after neighbours did not turn up in Kalahandi district.
According to reports, deceased Kanak Satapathy from Dokaripada village under Golamunda block in the district died late on Friday night due to illness. The grief-stricken family waited for the neighbours to come forward to help them perform the last rites of the 75-year-old widow.
When no one came to their help, the four daughters performed the role of pallbearers and took the body on a cot to the cremation ground. The bereaved girls also lit the funeral pyre, defying the age-old tradition.
The incident has made a mockery of the Harischandra Yojana, a scheme to provide assistance to the poor and destitute to perform last rites.
Of the four girls, three girls are widowed and the other one is deserted by her husband.
Sources said that the villagers chose to turn a blind eye as the family’s financial fragility.