Versha Verma has been transporting dead bodies and performing last rites for families in need long before the pandemic began. Here’s how it all started.
TW: Death
TW: Death
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00:00For the past three years, we have cremated more than 600 people.
00:16I don't have a lot of helping hands or funds.
00:20But we are determined to help people.
00:30This work has been going on for the past 25-27 years.
00:40I have been doing this work since I was a teenager.
00:43The destitute people who are lying on the streets,
00:46who are suffering from various diseases,
00:48we have to get them out of the streets,
00:50get them hospitalized,
00:52bathe them, wash them, feed them, feed them.
00:54If they die during the service,
00:56then we cremate them.
01:00We have been doing this work for a long time.
01:06The cremators were asking me for Rs.10,000-15,000.
01:11I thought that when I am facing so many problems,
01:15then thousands of people must be facing problems
01:18because the cremation is very costly.
01:21We have been doing this work for a long time.
01:29People who die in their homes,
01:31they are already in a lot of grief.
01:36When they are hit by money,
01:38they are hit twice.
01:39Then either they think of committing suicide
01:41or they have a negative view of the society.
01:46So to save these things,
01:48I thought it is very important to have a small initiative.
01:54I started a van and it ran very successfully.
01:57On the first day, I had thousands of demands.
02:00One van, one girl and one driver
02:02were not able to fulfill thousands of demands.
02:04So I kept another van from the next day.
02:06Now there are three vans, three drivers and three attendants.
02:18From South Africa, Canada, America,
02:21we got calls from different countries
02:24that their parents have expired in India.
02:31When a person goes out for actual service,
02:35then religion does not interfere.
02:37Religion does not interfere or any caste does not interfere.
02:40I have done two cases of Muslims.
02:43I have welcomed them.
02:45I have cremated a Hindu body with as much respect
02:48as I have cremated a Muslim body with the same respect.
02:55My daughter is 15 years old.
02:59One day, when I was cremating my 15-year-old daughter,
03:03I could not sleep all night.
03:06I could not eat on that day.
03:08There are some problems in such things.
03:19But when you take these negative things positively
03:22and move forward, then you only move forward.
03:25You support your goal and you keep moving forward.
03:28Because I know what I am doing
03:30and how much the society needs this service.
03:33So I feel that no obstacle will be able to stop me now.
03:43My daughter never had any problem.
03:45My husband was also a little upset in the beginning.
03:48But it was justified. I am his only wife.
03:51People were not able to accept things.
03:54But my nearest and dearest, who have known me since childhood,
03:57they know that normal things are boring for me.
04:07If someone does it at a very high level,
04:09then someone does it at a very low level.
04:11But help is help.
04:13I think if everyone decides to help,
04:15then these big problems will be reduced.
04:18And we can all get out of the pandemic very soon.