COVID-19: Frontline warriors that nobody cares about

Have never seen such horrifying scenes mortuaries are getting filled with bodies and crematorium and burial grounds have bodies in the waitlist We have to wait between two and ten hours with unclaimed bodies as the first preference is given to claimed COVID casesrdquo say Manoj Valmiki 28 and his colleague Sunil Sharma 22 giving an account of the grim situation that the city is faced with Barely with any protection the two have been carrying out the last rites of unclaimed and unidentified bodies to make ends meet ldquoIf we do not do this job no one else will dordquo said the frontline warriors that nobody cares aboutManoj Valmiki and Sunil Sharma along with police Naik D P Ware have been lifting unclaimed unidentified bodies from the cityAs the second wave of the pandemic claims too many lives it has reignited the debate for human equality in India especially over the handling of unclaimed and unidentified bodiesRules say PPE is a must for frontline health workers who are exposed to dangerous germs but Manoj and Sunil donrsquot have access to the gear A pair of gloves at times torn is their only shield against decomposed bodiesThe duo reports to Police Naik D P Ware who is attached to the Motor Transport Department Nagpada and drives police hearse MH04AN3782 Ware is fighting a lifethreatening disease and has diabetes and high blood pressure He has been ferrying unclaimed bodies to cremation and burial grounds since 2001 The police personnel of the 1995 batch is awaiting his promotion as hawaldar for the last few years as his juniors have already got promotedldquoWe collect unclaimed bodies from St Georges GT JJ KEM Nair Sion hospital mortuaries and dispose of them as per the religion of the deceased My father Naresh did this job and died at 49 Even my grandfather Makan used to dispose of unclaimed bodies and he too died earlyrdquo said Manoj who earns Rs 29000 a month and is the only breadwinner for his family of six and also funds his younger brotherrsquos education The Class IV servant got married last year but cannot afford to get his wife to the city as he has no place to stayBut for Sunil the only income is through the Rs 200 that is paid to him by Ware who gets a few hundred rupees from sub inspectors who maintain a record of unclaimed bodies found in their jurisdiction Ware also spends about Rs 100 on white cloth to wrap a bodyThe two have no medical insurance or any other protection for their familyThey spend several hours a day in the police hearse amid unbearable smell ldquoWe are used to the stench from decomposed bodies and now it doesnrsquot affect us We even sleep inside the hearse when ferries corpses from mortuaries for funeralsrdquo said SunilSince the COVID outbreak the local police have stopped shifting unidentified roadside bodies ldquoThey inform Ware and we join him We have no clue if the person died of COVID Hours after a test is done at a civic or staterun hospital do we know if we were exposed to the virusrdquo said ManojWhile Manoj says he buys a small pocket of hand sanitizer on his own he is not given any safety kit or toiletriesBut unclaimed body lifters like Kanaiya Solanki 38 and Rizwan 30 could not even afford sanitiser Solanki died a few months ago and Rizwan has stopped the work as he suffers from an autoimmune diseaseAsked if they would contract a lifethreatening disease Manoj said ldquoCOVID or no COVID the fact is we all have to die someday But it should never be that our body is tagged as unclaimed or unidentifiedrdquoManoj said he worked for two days at the Sion crematorium that saw 82 bodies On Monday the police hearse picked 6 unclaimed bodies three Muslim men and as many Hindu women from JJ mortuary When they came to Sion crematorium they learnt that already 25 bodies had come since morning and 10 more of COVID victims were expected Ware said ldquoWe are told that we will have to wait till midnight to cremate the three Hindu women It will be almost early morning when I will return homerdquoWare added ldquoMy family is under constant fear because of my health conditions Even my wife is fighting a lifethreatening ailment Luckily my children are spared I have made it a practice to put all my clothes in the washing machine take a shower before entering the house and having dinner I usually return home postmidnight I do not have a PPE kit nor the two workers Manoj and SunilrdquoOn their plight police surgeon Dr S M Patil said ldquoI have already directed all mortuary staff to wear PPE kits and we have also supplied the same to the postmortem centers The hamals are not our staffers but had they asked for the same our mortuary staff would have provided the PPE to them It is observed that they do not like to wear it as working with PPEs becomes difficult for themrdquoBut the lifters denied anyone ever talking to them about PPE kits ldquoThey are reluctant to even give masksrdquo they saidDr Subhash Hira Professor of Global Health at the University of WashingtonSeattle said ldquoThe entire aspect is neglected in Mumbai Unclaimed bodies have a high risk of infections like TB HIVAIDS and antibioticresistant bugs The neglected human service area can be corrected by an officer with an eye on human dignityrdquo40Average daily load at Sion crematorium last week