Hope always has a trick up its sleeve to steal its way through the despair even during the difficult times of Covid-19. A lighthouse is always there to beacon you.
The other day in Rajasthan’s Sikar district, the village community refused to help the family cremate the body of an elderly woman Sayar Kanwar who had died of suspected coronavirus. Despite the repeated pleading of the deceased poor husband, the villagers did not go anywhere close to the body and even asked her husband to go away.
The village was in the grip of fear as in Sikar district, 21 people died of Covid-19 in 21 days since April 15 after they attended the funeral of a corona patient.
When tehsildar of Sikar district Rajni Yadav learned that villagers have almost boycotted and distanced themselves from the family of the dead, she decided to act herself.
She immediately stepped out of her office and reached the spot wearing a PPE kit and made arrangements for the funeral of the woman.
Before this, Yadav requested community health centre authorities to provide an ambulance to carry the body to the cremation ground. But when no ambulance came for two hours, she went around the area in search of the vehicle.
After some hard work, the Dhod village Tehsildar managed a private vehicle for taking the woman’s body to the cremation ground.
With not many around and the market closed, she alone made all made preparations for the last rites at the cremation ground.
Deriving such all-out support, the grieving and shocked husband lit the funeral pyre of his wife.
“I took the initiative to take the body to the cremation ground in a private vehicle because the ambulance could not be arranged in time. I went to the funeral ground for the preparations because there was no one to assist the elderly man who had two minor grandchildren,” Yadav said, adding modestly that it is a small social service from her side in a national crisis.