'Krantikari' at heart; UP woman cremated 500 bodies, aids women to earn livelihood

Shalu Saini, a woman in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar, emerged to be one among many faces within the society while India battled COVID 19 throughout 2020 and 2021. Saini, who runs a charitable trust, conducted the last rites of as many as 500 unclaimed bodies during the heyday of the pandemic.

Muzaffarnagar:Tens and thousands of deaths have occurred in India due to COVID-19 since March 2020. According to data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a total of 5,26,689 fatalities have been recorded in the country till Sunday, August 7, 2022. While frontline workers dealt with the disease at health facilities across the nation, unsung heroes emerged from within localities at the time, lending time and shoulders both to the aid of the living, as well as the dead.

Shalu Saini from Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district is one such dedicated soul. Saini has cremated close to 500 bodies since the onset of the pandemic in India and runs a charitable organization, "Sakshi Welfare Trust", which assists women in the locality to earn a living and carries out other social activities. Saini, in her own words, is a 'krantikari' (revolutionary), which is the quality she describes as the decisive factor behind this zeal for welfare.

"People know me as 'krantikari'. We are able to perform acts which bring in change only when we have a revolutionary mindset," she says in a conversation with ETV Bharat. "We had a mission, one where we aimed to become the 'waris' (heir) to the unclaimed and continuously carried out last rites for them," she adds.

What propelled the team into the task, however, were heart-wrenching sights emerging at the time. "A viral video showed visuals of human remains post-cremation lying about in crematoriums. This had an impact on us. We had a meeting and decided to help out," she said, attributing the humanism to her parents and saying she had merely inherited the habit of lending a helping hand.

When inquired whether the organization faced support from the local populace, Saini responded in the positive. "Many people fuel my enthusiasm. They call, they meet me, and reveal their support for our work. We have issued a toll-free number, so whenever any such unclaimed body is discovered, we get a call from the respective police station and do the needful".

She said financial backing is crucial for the trust since she alone could not spend much money. "We have a large supporter base, as well as a few dedicated donors who regularly backed us in the past and continue to do so that our work runs smoothly," she added.