Amid rising deaths, poor in Unnao struggle with funerals

High cost of cremations and traditions force many to bury the dead, but they face official pushback after the discovery of discarded bodies

Having travelled 30 km from his village Parsanda with the body of his teenage niece in an open mini-truck without any fuel or wood for cremation, Bachu Lal was caught in a fix when the cleaners at the Baksar ghat informed him he would not be allowed to bury the body due to new directions from the administration. The ghat came under official spotlight earlier this week after visuals showed a large number of bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims buried there, allegedly due to scarcity of cremation resources and rise in fatalities due to the infection — a claim yet to be officially acknowledged. Since the girl was unmarried, Bachu Lal’s family, as per customs, had planned to bury the body instead of cremating it. Cremation with the proper rituals would cost the family around ₹6,000-8000, a sum they could ill afford amid the ongoing lockdown. A distraught Mr. Lal said just a month ago, the family had buried the body of a relative at the same site without any hindrances.