No money for vehicle, man walks 10 km with wife's body on shoulder

Dana Majhi said his request for an ambulance for the sixty-km journey to his village was rejected by the hospital.

Source: OTV

In a disturbing incident, a man in India had to walk 12 km carrying his dead wife on his shoulder, with his weeping 12-year-old daughter by his side.

Dana Majhi of Kalahandi (Odisha), one of the poorest districts in the country, couldn’t afford to pay to for a vehicle to take home his wife’s body after her death on Tuesday night in a government hospital due to tuberculosis. He said his requests for an ambulance for the sixty-kilometre journey to his village were ignored.

With no money to pay for a vehicle, he said he was left with no choice but to walk home with his wife’s body hoisted on his shoulder.

"I told the hospital authorities that I am a poor man and cannot afford a vehicle. I kept requesting them but they said they could not help," Mr Majhi told a journalist who found him after he had walked 10 km with the body.

It was only after the journalist informed senior officials that an ambulance was arranged for the remaining part of the journey.

Source: OTV

The district authorities said Mr. Majhi left the hospital without informing the hospital staff. The hospital administration claimed he never approached them for help.

"If he had asked for help, we would have provided it," Kalahandi District Collector Brunda D told NDTV. She said the administration has now offered him help with the funeral under a government scheme.

NDTV reported Odisha had launched a scheme in February, to provide transportation for bodies from government hospitals free of charge, but that service was not available to Mr Majhi.