Denied a vehicle, man carries dead wife’s body on shoulders

A grieving man from the eastern Indian state of Odisha carried his dead wife’s body on his shoulders from the hospital to his village for almost 12km (7 miles), claiming it’s because he couldn’t afford to pay for an ambulance. The 42-year-old Amang Dei had died of tuberculosis at a hospital. Despite all his efforts, the man Dana Manjhi could not get any help from the hospital authorities. He had no vehicle to take home his wife’s body from a government hospital, 60 km from his village.

The daughter of Majhi accompanied him till some local reporters spotted the duo. Left with little money, Majhi requested hospital authorities to arrange a vehicle for transporting the body.

“The incident has once again exposed the state government’s anti-tribal attitude”.

In another shocking incident, the body of a 70-year-old woman who jumped off a speeding train near Soro railway station in Balasore district, was carried by two daily wage earners since the police failed to get a mortuary van to carry the body to the hospital for postmortem.

“I have asked the sub-divisional magistrate to conduct an inquiry and submit the report by Thursday evening. Despite repeated requests, they said they can not offer me any help”, Dana Majhi told Odisha TV.

According to Reuters, Majhi was unable to pay for an ambulance from the hospital, which was said to be in Kalahandi, a district of India’s eastern Odisha state, to his village of Melghar, so he chose to walk the 60 kilometres. Soon, an ambulance was sent which took the body to Melghar village.

The Naveen-Patnaik-led BJD government has been severely criticised.

Senior BJP leader and MLA Radharani Panda said the welfare schemes announced by the state government were ineffective and meaningless as their benefits were not reaching the targeted people.

But Majhi told Odisha TV that the hospital authorities told him that there are are no vehicles.