Odisha government may attempt to sweep the issue of Kalahandi tribal Dana Majhi who carried his wife’s corpse under the carpet, but the recent news of Bahrain Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa extending financial help to the family drowned in grief will sink them in embarrassment for sure.
According to the Gulf daily news, Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa read about Dana Manjhi, who carried the body of his wife for 12 km from the hospital, where she died as the hospital denied to providing an ambulance for her to be sent back to their village.
The Prime Minister was so upset after reading the news that he felt he had to do something about such suffering. He just couldn’t stand by and do nothing about such pain so his office contacted Bahrain’s Indian Embassy and in a remarkable humanitarian gesture, he donated a sum of money to help Majhi and his family.
Though, the report did not inform the sum. One Bahraini Dinar equals Rs 178 Indian Rupee.
Majhi’s wife Amangdei died of tuberculosis at Kalahandi district headquarter hospital in Bhawanipatna, early on Wednesday morning. Majhi sought help from hospital staff in carrying the body back to his village 60 km away, but the hospital staff rebuffed him. Manjhi then walked with his wife’s corpse on his shoulders for almost 12 km along. His youngest daughter was also walking with him. A TV channel reporter came to his rescue and got him ambulance from a local NGO.
The district administration of Odisha conducted a blamed Majhi for taking the corpse without asking anyone. The administration of the hospital suspended a male nurse on duty for negligence. The officials of administration didn’t provide him time to grieve. They called Majhi to Bhawanipatna for joining an official probe just before he was about to perform the post-death rituals as per his tribal custom.
Majhi alleged that during the probe, he was asked whether he had killed his wife by the Kalahandi district collector.
Majhi said that if he had killed his wife, he wouldn’t have taken her to the hospital and after her death, he would have dumped her body somewhere and fled from the spot instead of carrying her body on his shoulder.
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29 August 2016
Avni S. Singh