Haridwar: An organization in Rajasthan's Jodhpur has been engaged in noble work for the past several decades by performing the last rites of people who die unclaimed.
The organization Hindu Seva Mandal not only conducts the last rites of all the unclaimed dead bodies but also collects their ashes and immerses them collectively in the Ganges. The organization has so far immersed the ashes of 1139 unclaimed people in the Ganges today with full rituals after reaching Harki Paidi in Haridwar. In the pots, hanged in red clothes, there are ashes of those unfortunate people, who could not be identified at the time of their death, nor was there anyone to perform their last rites.
The ritual is carried out by the 24 members of the Hindu Seva Mandal of Jodhpur for the last several decades. The members travel to Haridwar once a year for the noble work. Vishnu Chand Prajapat, the secretary of the Hindu Seva Mandal, says that the organization was established in the year 1925. Since then, the members have been engaged in the last rites of the unclaimed bodies along with various other social works.
Prajapat said that during COVID-19, when people used to shy away from cremating the bodies of their loved ones, the organization was continuously cremating the dead bodies of the unclaimed and Coronavirus victims. “When people did not touch the ashes of their corona virus-infected dead, then our organization established a bone bank and immersed the ashes into the Ganges. There is a system to keep the bones of 1000 to 1500 dead bodies in the bone bank”, Prajapat said.
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