Madhya Pradesh: Youths carry body of mother for 80 km on motorbike

In another display of poor health services in Madhya Pradesh, two sons carried their dead mother's body on a motorbike from Shahdol Government Medical College to their home 80 kms away in neighbouring Anuppur district on Sunday. 

The two sons tied the body of Jaimati Yadav, 65, a resident of Godaru village in Kotma of Anuppur district, on a bamboo structure as done during a funeral procession, and carried it placed between them, on the motorcycle. 

They alleged that they could not get a hearse van or ambulance from the hospital to carry the body and since the charges of private vehicles were high, they were forced to carry the body on motorcycle. One of the sons, Sunder Yadav also alleged negligence of health staff in Shahdol district hospital, where Jaimati was initially admitted on Sunday, as cause of the death.

A video of the incident has gone viral on social media, leading the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission to serve a notice on the Shahdol district collector, chief medical and health officer (CMHO) and superintendent of the medical college.

MP Congress chief and ex-chief minister Kamal Nath attacked the government. Tweeting the viral video, Nath said: “This is the shameful picture of 18 years of BJP government’s development in Madhya Pradesh. This is the health system. After the death of a woman in Shahdol, sons carried the body of their mother, tied to a bamboo structure, for 80 kms on a motorcycle. Those responsible kept sleeping. Here, development is only in speeches and false announcements, nothing on the ground.”

The dean of the Government Medical College, Dr. Milind Shiralkar, however released a video statement, saying that Jaimati Yadav was referred to the medical college hospital in a serious condition from the district hospital and passed away in the wee hours. He said that the ward boy of the hospital who carried the body downstairs asked the relatives of Jaimati about the arrangements of a vehicle to carry the body back to which they (the relatives) replied that they have made the arrangements and the ward boy should just help them to carry the body outside the hospital premises. “If they had told about unavailability of a vehicle and if the hospital administration would have come to know about this, certainly some arrangements would have been made,” the dean said.

However, on Monday, the chairman of the MP Human Rights Commission, Justice (Rtd) Narendra Kumar Jain served notices to the district authorities regarding the incident, seeking replies in three weeks. 

A commission press release said that the chairman took cognizance of the fact that the sons could not get a government vehicle to take the body and were forced to tie up the body as in a funeral procession and take it on a bike. Also, they could not afford Rs 4000-5000 for a private vehicle. 

On his part, the hospital superintendent said that the hospital did not have a hearse van and the registration process of ambulances was underway and they would be available only when this process is complete, the commission release said.