The unsavoury incident at Swarnarekha crematorium at Bhuiyandih on Sunday, in which a group of locals clashed with police to thwart the cremation of Covid-19 patients’ bodies, was completely unwarranted.
This incident proves that as citizens we are insensitive and are completely incapable of showing respect to even our departed souls.
The incident also underlines the need to educate and inform the general citizenry about Covid-19 and the ways to deal with it.
It also proves that there is a high degree of misinformation prevailing in the society about the ways in which Covid-19 does and can spread.
Cremation of dead bodies of persons dying of Covid-19 is not something that will cause the disease to spread faster in any area. The disease is already spreading and it is spreading through people who are alive and walking more than through dead bodies.
There is a need to educate people that people who are walking all around without masks and are sneezing in public and those who are not complying with safety instructions in personal hygiene matters are more likely to spread the infection than dead bodies which are cremated in the prescribed manner as per government protocol.
It is difficult for the administration to handle any group of people who have been instigated and aroused with misinformation. However, since those are misguided and misinformed people, the right way to deal with them is to equip and arm them with right information.
There is no doubt that right information would soothe the concerns and fears of locals.
They genuinely fear about their safety and are unaware that the walking-breathing-coughing persons all around them are more of a potential threat than dead persons.
