World | India
No regrets, say young men who handle bodies
His right arm is missing, shouts a father as his 30-year-old son's body, wrapped in white clothes, was being taken out from the mortuary room of the Bhabha hospital in Bandra.
- By Sunita Menon, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 July 12, 2006
Mumbai: His right arm is missing, shouts a father as his 30-year-old son's body, wrapped in white clothes, was being taken out from the mortuary room of the Bhabha hospital in Bandra.?
A?young man?wearing red shirt, sporting blood stained rubber gloves on both his hands, asks for the body to be brought back to the mortuary room.
His eyes scan the room where 11 mutilated bodies lay on the floor.
He jumps over them and reaches out for a broken arm that was kept wrapped in a blood soaked shirt.
"I am sorry I forgot to wrap the arm with the body," said 20-year-old Pappu to the father who was on the verge of falling unconscious. Pappu gets the arm back to whom it belongs.
"Take it away. Who is next please come and identify the body," calls out Pappu to the weeping family members.
Pappu is not alone doing this work. Joining him are three other young men all in the same age group.
After handing three more bodies to their respective families Pappu and his team take a break.
Headless
"Where are you from? which newspaper do you represent? You are quite daring. I admire your guts," he said looking at this reporter.
When asked since when he and his colleagues are on this job, Pappu replied: "We are porters employed temporarily by the railway authorities to handle bodies. Our job is to get them to the hospital."
"Some of the bodies that arrived here are headless. Some has broken arms and legs while some have injuries on their face which makes it difficult for their family members to recognise them," he said.
Pappu's colleague Sajid said: "When the bodies arrive we try to find whether they have any identification papers on them, which are then tied on their arm. This makes it easier for their families to identity them."
Asked why does he does this?job Jitendra Singh, another?member of Pappu's team, said: "This is also work. We get paid for it. Now?the mutilated bodies not?make any effect on us.?This is like any other job. I have no regrets."
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