By Shambhu Nath Chaudhary Ranchi, Nov 28, : .Meet Mohammad Khalid.
He is a resident in Hazaribagh and Jharkhand.Twenty years ago, his life was forever changed when he saw a woman who had died on the roadside.
People continued to pass by, but no one noticed.
Khalid, who owns a Hazaribagh pathology centre, became restless after seeing the corpse.
Khalid, who runs a Hazaribagh pathology centre, was able to transport the body in a cart and buy a shroud.He then took the body to a crematorium and gave it a dignified burial.
He was made a good samaritan for unclaimed bodies by this incident and has made it his mission to dispose of unclaimed corpses every day since.
Tapas Chakraborty from St Columbus College in Hazaribagh joined his campaign a few months later.
The duo has buried over 6,000 bodies, making them a ‘friend to the dead’.
During the pandemic, people were afraid to tell their family members.
The Khalid-Tapas duo performed final rites on approximately 500 bodies, putting their lives at risk.The duo is now known as the “messiah unclaimed bodies” in Jharkhand.
The mortuary at RIMS (Jharkhand’s biggest hospital) was clogged with unclaimed bodies in 2010.The smell became unbearable and the body stench became unbearable.
The administration could not solve the problem.Khalid and Tapas then took on the daunting task of mass funerals for all the deceased.Together, they cremated approximately 150 bodies.Both of them have continued to perform the final rites for unclaimed bodies at RIMS ever since.
The duo accepted the challenge and became the messiah of the dead during the second and third Covid waves.Khalid performed the final rites for 96 people who died from Covid in just 15 days.
They performed the final rites for the unclaimed bodies and also immersed the ashes into the Ganges and other rivers belonging to Hindus.Local donors and the administration have provided vehicles to facilitate transporting dead bodies to the crematorium.
Their organization, ‘Murda Kalyan Samiti,’ has attracted more people.
Khalid explained to IANS that during Covid, he and his wife had to work hard every day.My heart was broken when I saw that a husband didn’t touch his wife’s corpse after she died from the coronavirus.
Khalid and Tapas launched a second campaign in Hazaribagh in 2015 to feed the hungry.
They created a roti bank, where people could deliver rotis to the hospital.This was used to distribute the rotis among the homeless, poor, and beggars.This has been happening for six years.People now contribute to the roti banks on different occasions such as marriage, birthdays, etc.and it then reaches the poor.Tapas Chakraborty is now retired from college, and Khalid has given the work of his pathology center to his family.
They spend their time cremating dead bodies and feeding the hungry.People are proud to share examples of their friendship and talk about the philanthropic work they do.
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