Dubai: Ashraf Palarakunnumal, an Ajman-based volunteer who helps families repatriate bodies to their home countries without charge, says he is pained by the growing number of Indian expats dying at a young age.
Palarakunnumal, who has assisted in the repatriation of close to 4,000 bodies so far and has received India’s prestigious Pravasi Bhartiya Award for his selfless service, said, “I have helped send 524 bodies in the past year alone, of which 196 or a third belonged to Indians under 40 years of age.”
He said, “This is the maximum I have seen my service in a year since I started out 16 years ago.”
He said 142 of the bodies were of Indians aged between 40 and 50 and 89 were above 50.
Natural deaths
He said while most of the cases were natural deaths, 58 were due to accidents and 19 were suicides.
Recent reports have also raised the alarm about the increasing number of Indians dying at an early age due to cardiac arrest and other health causes. According to the reports, 65 per cent of the deaths in 2015 were those of people younger than 45.
“I feel very saddened that such young people are losing their precious lives. Many of them live stressful lives due to work, financial or family pressures. But there is no problem that can’t be resolved. As expats, we should look after our health and take care of each other. We should talk about our problems and find ways to resolve them instead of letting them take over our lives,” he said..
