Overlooked—India’s overworked and underpaid crematorium workers, who often face caste-based discrimination as Dalits, are the invisible warriors of India’s #COVID19 crisis. The poorly paid & underappreciated undertakers in the overflowing crematoriums.🧵
vice.com/en/article/y3d…
vice.com/en/article/y3d…
2) The Dalit community is considered the lowest in the Hindu caste system, which is over 3,000 years old and divides Hindus into rigid hierarchical groups dictating their standing in Indian society.
3) They work 12-hour shifts, earning only Rs 10,000 ($134) a month, and can easily be spotted in crematoriums: unlike the families of the deceased, they rarely wear personal protective gear (PPE).
4) “I don’t feel anything when I see a dead body,” the crematorium worker said. “Maybe I don’t want to feel anything. I drink two bottles of beer every day before coming to work.”
5) Dipanshu Rathore, a rights activist at the Asia Dalit Rights Forum, explained that it is common to see sons of cremation workers follow in their fathers’ footsteps because few jobs are available to the underprivileged Dalit community.
6) “Who will do all the dirty and dangerous work? It’s the Dalits. People don’t want to get their hands dirty, so they call Dalits to do their dirty job for them,” Rathore told VICE World News.
7) The COVID-19 crisis has created a unique space for India’s Dalit cremators. During Hindi cremation burial ceremonies, the prayers are almost always read by upper-caste Brahmins.


8) Asked if he is Brahmin, Rai laughed and said, “Of course not, but in these times, we are all Brahmins.”
“Almost everyone asks about my caste because everyone wants a Brahmin to do the rituals and not the Dalits, but they aren’t available,” he said. “We are.”
“Almost everyone asks about my caste because everyone wants a Brahmin to do the rituals and not the Dalits, but they aren’t available,” he said. “We are.”
9) Rathore said that cremators are often discriminated against by other Dalit communities. “People don’t shake their hands or offer them water because they think the cremators might bring them bad luck.”
10)“No one knows how many cremation workers have tested positive for this deadly disease and no one knows how many have died as a result. It is because government officials don’t see the cremation workers and sanitation workers as human.” 😢
11) But the job of a cremation worker is more than just cremating dead bodies. In Delhi’s largest crematorium, so many were seen counselling grieving families too.
12) During the cremation rituals of his brother, Himanshu was scared. Rai held Himanshu’s hand and whispered consoling words into his ear as they both lit the pyre that held his brother’s body.
13) “I told him that his brother’s soul is trapped in the body and we have to free him. If we don’t light the body, he won’t be able to go to god and will be trapped in this place forever,” Rai said.
14) As Rai completed the cremation, he asked the family to follow him for remaining paperwork. He knew the distressed family needed help to navigate the crematorium’s procedures. “Many people who come here are illiterate and it is very difficult for them to fill all the forms…
15) “…In such cases, I myself fill up their forms and complete the complicated cremation procedures,” Rai said.
When Rai was done, he went down to the river to smoke but was soon called back up to the crematorium. Eight more bodies had arrived. vice.com/amp/en/article…
When Rai was done, he went down to the river to smoke but was soon called back up to the crematorium. Eight more bodies had arrived. vice.com/amp/en/article…
16) "Dalits are not allowed to drink from same wells, attend same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls," said Smita Narula, author of Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's "Untouchables."
nationalgeographic.com/pages/article/…
nationalgeographic.com/pages/article/…
17) my god, these headlines on human rights abuses against Dalits are insane and unbearable…
18) So much suffering in India. Besides caste, poverty and lack of societal resources in India is a major driving factor to the suffering from #CovidIndia too. Oxygen just tip of the iceberg.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1387179479102107651
19) People ask me - “Why do you care so much about the Dalits”?
Because I care about giving voice to the voiceless.
And because, in 1890-1928 in Shanghai, my birth city, there was once a park sign that read “No dogs and no Chinese allowed”. Stings.
google.com/amp/s/m.huffpo…
Because I care about giving voice to the voiceless.
And because, in 1890-1928 in Shanghai, my birth city, there was once a park sign that read “No dogs and no Chinese allowed”. Stings.
google.com/amp/s/m.huffpo…
20) While we are here, let’s help our friends and family in India…
https://twitter.com/vincentrk/status/1388816452959014912
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