Bhawanipatna, Odisha: India’s Odisha’s state ordered an investigation on Thursday after a tribal man was forced to carry his wife's body for 10km when a hospital allegedly failed to provide a mortuary van, media reports said.
Dana Majhi's wife Amang Dei, 42, died from tuberculosis on Tuesday night in the Kalahandi district hospital in Bhawanipatna.
Majhi said he couldn't afford to hire a vehicle and the hospital authorities, who refused to help, insisted on removing the body. So he wrapped the body in a cloth, hoisted it on his shoulder and started to walk to his village Melghara in Rampur block, about 60km from Bhawanipatna. After he carried the body for at least 10km, some local reporters spotted Majhi along with his 12-year-old daughter Chaula and arranged an ambulance with the help of the collector.
The hospital officials have denied his charge, saying that the husband took away the body without informing the hospital staff.
District Collector Brundha D, who ordered an investigation, said preliminary report suggested that the man took his wife's body without informing the hospital authorities. "The doctors did not even complete the [hospital] discharge procedures," she said.
Brunda D said the administration has now offered Majhi help for the funeral arrangements under Harishchandra Yojana [a government scheme to help the poor and destitute to perform last rites].
In February, the state government had announced the Mahaparayana scheme to transport the bodies of the poor from hospitals to their homes. But that service was not available to Majhi.
