This woman cop renders yeoman service, cremates unclaimed bodies

Balancing professional and personal work is very tough, but only women can do that and among the lot is Priyanka from Chandigarh. She has been working as a constable in Police Lines, Sector 26, and also doing a yeoman service. She has cremated 150 to 200 unclaimed bodies till date.

Chandigarh (Punjab): This woman hogged the limelight in the past when a video of her holding a four-month-old baby while discharging her duties at Chandigarh's Sector 24 went viral on social media. After which the people of Chandigarh, along with the police department, gave Priyanka the name of 'Dabang Lady'. Priyanka, a woman constable working in the Chandigarh police department, has set an example in society with her humanitarian service. Priyanka, who considers her police 'duty' to be very important, is also taking out time for social service.

She is selflessly involved in work that is not available to everyone. Priyanka performs the last rites of unclaimed bodies found in the city and also immerses their ashes in Haridwar. In the last few years, she has cremated 150 to 200 such bodies. Priyanka said that she had sought permission from the police department to do this work. The department has said that their police duty should not be affected by this work. Constable Priyanka, who lives in Sector 49, is doing this work in collaboration with an organisation called All India Seva Samiti.

Priyanka said that she has been cremating the unclaimed bodies since 2015. However, she never let her duty get affected by this work. Now with the approval of the department, she is doing this service work with renewed vigour. She used to see social worker Madan Lal Vashisht coming to PGI in connection with the cremation of unclaimed bodies. That's where Priyanka got her inspiration. After this, she engaged in this noble work with him.

Priyanka said that when she gave birth to a son in 2020, the family members could not come due to the Corona. Then Madan Lal did all the rituals related to the birth of the child as she considers him a fatherly figure. Since then this father-daughter relationship has become very strong. Priyanka says that she is constantly associated with the work of getting the documents prepared for conducting the last rites and ashes immersion of unclaimed bodies.

Priyanka at present was posted in Police Lines, Sector 26. She says that she leaves a little before duty time. On receiving information about any unclaimed body, she sees that papers get ready as soon as possible. Later, she takes some time out of her busy schedule to conduct the funeral rites. In the meantime, she visits Haridwar to immerse ashes.