Setting examples for humanity is a group of Muslim men from Pune cremating and burying the dead bodies of unclaimed and abandoned covid 19 victims, irrespective of their religion. The group has been doing the deed since the pandemic struck in 2020.
Despite the holy month of Ramadan and their fasting days when Muslims do not eat or drink anything till sunset, the men are continuing to do the cremation and burial at all hours.
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Speaking about their objectives, Javed Khan, a member of the Ummat Foundation- the group behind the act- said, “We don’t differentiate between religions. All we understand is humanity. We perform last rites for corpses of both Hindu and Muslim victims.”
Till now, the organization has buried and cremated more than 1,000 abandoned dead bodies of covid-19 patients. They follow all covid protocols and wear PPE kits while carrying out the process of performing the final rites for the bodies of the people who remained unclaimed.
They begin their work whenever they receive calls and information from the local administration to help them in the last rites. They are doing their work even on an empty stomach.
“Even during our fasting, we are unable to sleep or rest for more than four hours as we start getting calls for the local administration and families of COVID-19 deceased since early morning. All 40 members, who are fasting, contribute to this task,” Mr Khan added.
The group, Ummat Foundation, was established nearly 3 years ago with the mission of cremating and burying unclaimed and abandoned bodies in Pune. The pandemic’s arrival increased the number of bodies that came in every day and the body geared up to work more than ever before as the phones rang often.
India is struggling to bring down its steep rise of covid cases and Pune is contributing to it with 10,902 new infections and 120 deaths registered within the past 24 hours. Stats of 11,174 people recovering was reported on Wednesday, according to the city’s Health Department.
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Presently, the district has 1,01,376 active cases of covid-19 and the total number of the infection became 7,53,353 with the new additions. The fatality count stands at 11,767 in Pune.
