Mumbai: Two or three months into the Covid-19 crisis, Mumbai gravedigger Sayyed Munir Kamruddin stopped wearing personal protective equipment and gloves. He has his own reason to offer and feels that the Covid-19 crisis will not affect him. “I’m not scared of Covid-19, I’ve worked with courage. It’s all about courage, not about fear,” said the 52-year-old, who has been digging graves in the city for 25 years. However, Kamruddin is the first to admit that he has never seen such a procession of dead bodies.
India is in the midst of a second wave of Covid-19 infections. It has seen more than 3,00,000 people test positive each day for the past week. The total number of cases in India has gone over 1.80 crore.
Health systems and crematoriums have been overwhelmed. In Delhi, ambulances have been taking the bodies of Covid-19 victims to makeshift crematoriums in parks and parking lots. Bodies are being burned on rows and rows of funeral pyres.
Kamruddin stated he and his colleagues are working around the clock to bury Covid-19 victims.
“This is our only job. Getting the body, removing it from the ambulance, and then burying it,” he said. The gravedigger added that he hasn’t had a single-day holiday in over a year.
It is the middle of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. However, Kamruddin said his trying job and the hot weather has kept him from fasting. “My work is really hard,” he said. “I feel thirsty all the time. I need to dig graves, cover them with mud, then need to carry dead bodies. With all this work, how can I fast?” Kamruddin shot back.
Yet Kamruddin’s faith keeps him going. He said he doesn’t expect aid from the government anytime soon. “Our trust in our mosque is very strong,” he asserted. “The government is not going to give us anything. We don’t even want anything from the government,” he added.
Kamruddin also doesn’t know whether he fits the category of frontline warrior in the fight against Covid-19. He is not aware of the benefits his family may get if something tragic happens to him. In fact, he is not even bothered about those facilities. “Faith is what pulls us through,” he said in a steely voice. “If ill-luck was to fall on me, it would have happened a long time back. I am burying Covid-19 patients for more than a year now,” he signed off as people came looking for him as another victim had arrived.