'Go slow on last rites, bodies don't spread disease'

A group of senior scientists from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has warned the Uttarakhand government, under pressure to finish mass cremations at Kedarnath, against the consequences of burning piled up bodies without a thought to "psychological closure".

TISS's Dr Ravikant Singh, said it's "important" to first try and identify the bodies. "There are the clothes victims have on them. There would be cellphones they've used. Kin need to know if their loved ones have really died," Singh said. "Otherwise, they'll keep hoping that someday the door will open and people they have assumed to be missing — in the absence of concrete evidence of their death — will walk in. There needs to be psychological closure. Else, it might lead to lifelong trauma and hallucinations. What's happening at Kedarnath is wrong."

The doctors said governments often justify mass cremations after natural disasters in the name of diseases bodies spread. "But there are myths that need to be broken," Singh said. "Bodies don't cause epidemics. And have negligible health risks for the public as long as they don't touch or handle dead bodies. Smell is not a health risk in well-ventilated area."

In something that the ITBP hinted at when its DG Ajay Chadda told the Uttarakhand government that "burial of bodies is not in our charter of duties", the scientists said the urgent task is care for survivors. The doctors, who were here first on June 20 and readying a second batch of scientists to reach Uttarakhand, said rapid mass burial of victims is not justified on public health grounds.

Though this might be controversial, the scientists, who said no one was listening to them, have come armed with a presentation for the state that says burial is preferable to cremation. The burial site should be 1.5m deep, at least 200m from drinking water sources, with bodies side by side and not piled up, and with clearly marked spaces for each. "Seeing the body and being able to say goodbye allows an emotional closure," one doctor said.

The recommendations are in keeping with a Pan American Health Organization report of 2004 that has its director Mirta Roses Periago noting: "Regrettably, we continue to be witness to the use of common graves and mass cremations owing to the myths and beliefs that corpses pose a high risk for epidemics."

Friday 28 June 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Go-slow-on-last-rites-bodies-dont-spread-disease/articleshow/20808832.cms