At a time when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had to offer a R500 incentive to encourage mortuary staffers to help cremate COVID-19 bodies, 33-year-old Sanju Tusamad had already started doing it voluntarily. A Malad resident, Tusamad has been helping the civic body for the past four months to cremate or bury unclaimed bodies of COVID-19 patients in Kandivli, Borivli, Malad and Jogeshwari.

Tusamad started helping the civic body in disposing of unclaimed bodies around four to five years back when he used to be an ambulance driver. "Ambulance drivers would often overcharge relatives of patients, but I would charge half the amount. Many bodies used to remain unclaimed, so I decided to perform their last rites," he said. Tusamad now owns a mutton shop and uses his income to support his family and purchase white sheets needed to wrap the bodies.