In an incident that has shocked Kerala, the funeral of an 83-year-old man from Kottayam district, who was found to have COVID-19 posthumously, was stopped by a group of residents led by local politicians, living near a public crematorium on Sunday. After hours of protest by people citing that the region near the crematorium is a closely packed residential area, the district authorities had to finally postpone the man’s funeral.
Tha man, a native of Chungam in Kottayam is the first COVID-19 related death in the district. The man who was under treatment for pneumonia was tested positive after he passed away at the Kottayam Medical College on Saturday. The health officials had decided to hold the funeral in the Muttambalam public crematorium owned by the Kottayam Municipality, on Sunday afternoon. But this was not well received by people in the region.
In the visuals of the incident aired by Malayalam news channels, close to 50 residents, including children, were seen obstructing the narrow road which leads to the crematorium, holding a sit in protest for hours together.
“This is a closely packed area and most of us are daily wage labourers who work as house helps etc. There are pregnant women and children here. If today we allow this funeral to be held here, since this is a public crematorium all funerals in the region will be started to be held here. That will be dangerous for us, we also want to live,” one of the protesting women was seen saying.
Though health authorities and police officials were deployed in the spot to resolve the issue, the residents led by ward member and local BJP councillor TN Harikumar were seen to be strongly opposing them.
In one of the videos that has surfaced, a ward member was seen exchanging heated words to a health official who tried to explain that cremation is not unsafe.
Talks were held between the government and the residents, but a solution could not be reached at. The government offered that the cremation could be done past midnight so that no one would be affected and and also said that no more cremations of COVID-19 patients would be done at this crematorium. But the residents did not agree to even this.
Meanwhile talking to TNM, Kottayam District Medical Officer Dr Jacob Varghese said that the apprehension of the people are unwarranted.
“Throughout the state we have been practising a special protocol, that is what was followed here also. But these are people with vested interests here Can’t these people think for a moment what if the deceased person was their family member, will they be saying the same?,” Dr Jacob told TNM.
Following discussions held with local leaders, representatives of the residents and health officials, MLA Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan told the media that the funeral has been postponed as an amicable solution could not be reached.
“The residents here are anxious, they need to be taken into confidence. Since the District Collector, Superintendent of Police and Additional District Magistrate are all in quarantine, they could not be present directly for the meeting, but we have informed the situation. We are waiting to see if there is an alternative solution,” said Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan.