Mumbai: Woman wins lone battle to give dignity to the dead

Mumbaikars spend their entire lives jostling for a few inches of space in this crowded city but many dont get it even in death if the morgue at the staterun St George Hospital is any indication With little space and few qualified doctors to perform autopsies bodies are piled up and left to rot at the decrepit mortuary But thanks to the efforts of a single citizen Renu Kapoor from Colaba the dead will finally have some dignity in MumbaiWhat the state has failed to do in so long Renu Kapoor a chartered accountant from Colaba pulled off in oneandahalf years After continuous followup Kapoor persuaded the government to grant over Rs 2 crore for the revamp of the dilapidated morgue at St George hospital The staterun hospital conducts over 400 postmortems every month but is dreadfully equipped for this taskBodies are left to rot inside the decrepit morgue where the cooling system doesnt work and the roof leaksThe morgue is housed in a tiny rundown shed behind the hospital next to Dhobi Ghat There are just two marble platforms where bodies are piled up This space runs out quickly and corpses are then laid down on the filthy floor Thanks to an inefficient cooling system decay sets into the bodies quickly releasing putrid fumes in the air Its even worse in the monsoon when rain water keeps dripping from the battered roofNo one deserves thisIn April 2017 Kapoors driver was admitted at St George hospital after an accident but died of septicaemia within 24 hours When she went to claim his body after postmortem Kapoor was shocked by the horrific condition of the morgue where bodies were piled up in racks Following this incident she decided to take the initiative to revamp the morgueAll living beings deserve dignity in death My driver was a hardworking man with two daughters who didnt deserve such a fate after his death When I spoke to the authorities I was informed that due to the dilapidated condition of the morgue no doctors agree to conduct postmortems so untrained Class IV employees do it instead I felt helpless so I started the campaign DignityInDeath Kapoor told middayWith no more space to pile the bodies on the platforms corpses are often left on the floor10 minutes can do itThe CA took the movement to Facebook and Changeorg where she received over 38000 signatures for her petition which helped to catch the governments attention After her tireless perseverance the Directorate of Medical Education and Research DMER in a letter to the hospital dated November 11 stated that a fund of Rs 2089 crore had been approved for the construction of a proper morgue midday has a copyI am thankful to government officials for all the help I received but the system is extremely slow It took 15 days just for the application to go from the DMER office to the hospital even though both offices are in the same building And I kept hearing the same comment Yeh India hai yaha sab slow hota hain recalled Kapoor adding that she dealt with the slow pace of work by putting aside 10 minutes every day for follow upHospital saysDr Madhukar Gaikwad superintendent of St George hospital said We have received the fund and the PWC will float a tender There is a big compound near the Dhobi Ghat where clothes from the hospital are washed We will use this space to construct the mortuary It would take 13 months to finish itDoctor saysA doctor from the governmentrun hospital said they conduct over 400 autopsies every month but are not paid for it or provide any experts for the job We get the highest number of unidentified bodies from accidents especially from the railways These bodies keep piling up Due to the inefficient cooling system the bodies decompose and it becomes unbearable for us to work in such an environment We dont even have the required equipment to cut the body open In such a condition how can we work So it is no surprise that untrained workers are made to do it Doctor supervise the procedure and sign the papers said the doctorCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates