Odisha govt apathy: Asking money from poor for transportation of bodies 'shameful, inhuman', says NCW chief

After a tribal man walked 10 kilometers carrying his wife's body on his shoulder on failing to get an ambulance, former National Commission for Women (NCW) chief Mamta Sharma said on Friday that asking money from the poor for transportation of bodies from government hospitals to the residence of the deceased is a shameful and inhuman act, and asked Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to intervene in such cases.

Sharma told ANI that this was something inhuman, and even after so many years of independence, there has been no benefit for the poor. She described it as a very unfortunate incident. "According to me, nothing more like this can be presented as an example of inhumanity. I want to say that the chief minister should strictly instruct his officers and employees that the state government will not tolerate this," Sharma said. 

"According to me, asking for money for a body is something really inhuman and shameful. In such cases, the government should pay attention," she added. Dana Majhi's wife, Amang Dei, had died of tuberculosis on Tuesday night at the district headquarters hospital at Bhawanipatna.

He wrapped his wife's body in cloth and started walking to his village, Melghara, in Rampur block, about 60 kilomters from Bhawanipatna. Majhi's 12-year-old daughter accompanied him.