India's Interfaith Volunteers Help Farewell Covid Victims

New Delhi, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th May, 2021 ) :Suneet Sharma has calmly staged dozens of funerals each day of India's resurgent coronavirus crisis -- but he was overwhelmed when a father arrived at the crematorium with the body of his infant daughter.

The 48-year-old volunteers in New Delhi with a Sikh association, one of many groups to spring up around the country and reach across religious traditions to help bereaved families bid farewell to their loved ones.

The arrival of bodies at cremation and burial grounds has been unrelenting in recent weeks and teams work long hours under the summer heat, sometimes in full protective gear to reduce their exposure to the virus.

Like Sharma, the volunteers from different faiths are willing to take on the emotional and physical toll of carrying out the final rites, driven by a sense of duty.

"We are doing it for... mankind, for humanity. That's all. Sometimes it's very, very painful," the 48-year-old told AFP.

Behind him, smoke curled up from crackling funeral pyres and family members of victims stood silently in protective suits.

"We are used to cremating 50 bodies a day, but we never cry. Today, I saw a little girl. Today, we cried," he said.