No Solace After Death For Aids Patient

Soro: In a bizarre incident, a 33 - year-old HIV aids-infected person was denied a place in the cremation ground after his death. The villagers vehemently refused his funeral to be conducted in the common cremation ground.

This incident took place at Tentei village under Soro block in Balasore district. Notably, the man contracted this disease from Mumbai where he worked as a daily wage labourer. He had come back to his village a few months back as he was not keeping well. As his condition deteriorated, the family members took him to SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack.

But things did not work well there. They shifted him to Rudra Hospital as they were assured of proper treatment there in lieu of one lakh rupees. The family sold off their house to arrange the funds, but the patient got discharged without being cured.

“We had taken him to hospital in Cuttack. They kept him in ICU for five days and then informed that there is no cure for this disease. We came back to the village and my brother died early in the morning. The villagers did not allow us to cremate, so we did it in our own premises,” revealed the deceased’s sister.

He died in the wee hours of Friday morning, and when his kin were denied entry to the common cremation ground, they had approached the IIC, Kartik Chandra Mallick of the nearby police station.

The Additional Tehsildar and Revenue Inspector visited the spot but were unable to convince the villagers to allow for the funeral.

Following this stiff opposition, the family members had no option left and lit the funeral pyre in front of their house in the evening.

“The police said that the villagers won’t give him and it is advisable if we cremate him in our backyard,” informed the wife of the deceased.

“I had informed the ARI and ASI to look into the matter. I don’t know whether the deceased has been given something under the Harishchandra scheme. Due to the villagers resistance, the kin of the family took this step of cremating at their home. I don’t know whether he was an aids patient, but the villagers say so,” said the Additional Tehsildar, Shatrughan Sethy. The deceased is outlived by his wife and two daughters. His one and half year old son had already succumbed to this disease earlier. Moreover, his wife and a 7-year-old daughter are also infected with this deadly disease.

The taboo regarding this deadly disease still exists in present-day society, despite numerous awareness campaigns and increase in literacy levels. The kin of the infected people still face discrimination and are boycotted by the society instead of giving comfort at the time of this distress.

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