– Radiance News Service
Covid Warrior, Anjum Inamdar deserves national appreciation for performing last rites of 3000 unattended dead bodies belonging to different faiths. Inamdar has shared his experiences of those days in his book, Being Humane Amidst Corona Crisis.
This book, first written in Marathi as Corona Mrutya-nantar, was released by Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo in Pune in 2022. Later translated into English by Syed Rizwanullah, former Bureau Head, The Times of India, the book was released recently during a program in the national capital.
Pawar has written the Foreword, which says, “They performed the last rites of more than 3000 Covid-19 victims in Pune city alone. While taking up this responsibility these activists ensured that the families of the victims are not worried about expenses. They took upon themselves this responsibility too. By this noble gesture, they have set an excellent example for all the Punekars. Whatever selfless work they have done, in my opinion, it must be recognized and respected at the national level…. They took a humanitarian stand when the society at large was in distress. They had the only motto of offering a helping hand to the bereaved families.”
Pawar further writes, “The memories of this humanitarian contribution of these social workers will always remain in our hearts…. They have done difficult jobs well and that too with humility and efficiently by contributing their services to the dead, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, or the language that the victims were speaking.”
Covid warrior, while talking to Radiance, said, “We kept on working as a response to the then ruling dispensation that was bent on spreading hatred, hostility, and heaping insults on Muslims to serve their vested interests. We, however, neither thought of any loss nor of any benefit. Our priority was to serve human beings in their sufferings. With the grace of Almighty Allah, we, the team members of Mulnivasi Muslim Manch, were able to perform more than 3000 last rites of Covid-19 victims irrespective of their caste, creed, and religion. We took all the deceased as members of our own clan. It was a very difficult task to perform last rites of the deceased as per their respective social and religious customs, yet we did it.”
Inamdar added, “It is also important to note that we didn’t take even a single pie from the kin of the Covid-19 victims for performing last rites. We also refused to take any money being offered by the Municipal Corporation. Instead, all of us, 28 members, dug into our own pockets, and resources, while working day and night, braving the vagaries of the weather, to do the needful.”
Inamdar, while sharing his experiences, said, “During the Covid 19 time, when even close relationships had become difficult to maintain, when mothers refused to recognize children and vice versa, many had refused to even lit the pyre, and tried not to allow a decent burial of their own people in graveyards, we did the needful.”
On their contribution, senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has written, “Let us know Anjum Inamdar who came forward to bid a respectful adieu to the victims claimed by the Covid-19 pandemic and abandoned by the society and even the dear and near ones.”
