Mumbai gravedigger works 24-hour shifts as India's Covid-19 death toll soars

Published April 29, 2021
An assistant of Sayyed Munir Kamruddin, a gravedigger, prepares a grave for Covid-19 burials at a graveyard in Mumbai, India, April 28. — Reuters
An assistant of Sayyed Munir Kamruddin, a gravedigger, prepares a grave for Covid-19 burials at a graveyard in Mumbai, India, April 28. — Reuters

Two or three months into the Covid-19 crisis, Mumbai gravedigger Sayyed Munir Kamruddin stopped wearing personal protective equipment and gloves.

"I'm not scared of Covid, I've worked with courage. It's all about courage, not about fear," said the 52-year-old, who has been digging graves in the city for 25 years.

India is in the midst of a second wave of coronavirus infections that has seen at least 300,000 people test positive each day for the past week, and its Covid-19 infections rise past 18 million.

Health systems and crematoriums have been overwhelmed. In Delhi, ambulances have been taking the bodies of Covid-19 victims to makeshift crematoriums in parks and parking lots, where bodies are burned on rows and rows of funeral pyres.

Kamruddin says he and his colleagues are working around the clock to bury Covid-19 victims.

"This is our only job. Getting the body, removing it from the ambulance, and then burying it," he said, adding that he hasn't had a holiday in a year.

Though it is the middle of the Muslim fasting month of Ramazan, Kamruddin told Reuters his trying job and the hot weather has kept him from fasting.

"My work is really hard," he said. "I feel thirsty for water. I need to dig graves, cover them with mud, need to carry dead bodies. With all this work, how can I fast?"

Yet Kamruddin's faith keeps him going, and he doesn't expect aid from the government anytime soon.

"Our trust in our mosque is very strong," he said. "The government is not going to give us anything. We don't even want anything from the government."

Opinion

Editorial

Agriculture concerns
24 Jun, 2025

Agriculture concerns

PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif appears relieved that the IMF did not turn down Pakistan’s request to exempt...
OIC reaction
Updated 24 Jun, 2025

OIC reaction

The bare minimum OIC can do is to take firm action against the butchery of Palestinian people and resist regime change.
NEVs, but for whom?
24 Jun, 2025

NEVs, but for whom?

THE government’s policy gymnastics following Pakistan’s unexpectedly rapid adoption of rooftop solar have ...
US aggression
Updated 23 Jun, 2025

US aggression

If there is any state in the world that the international community must be concerned about harbouring weapons of mass destruction, it is Israel.
Finishing the job
23 Jun, 2025

Finishing the job

THE federal health minister’s assertion of a 99pc reduction in polio cases in Pakistan, while impressive on the...
Exam leaks
23 Jun, 2025

Exam leaks

FOR students who put in countless hours of hard work for their secondary school exams — mainly to secure admission...