Treat dead with dignity, says Orissa

The Orissa government has announced a set of guidelines to ensure that the bodies of those deceased are transported from the hospitals “with respect and dignity”.

The move comes after the state government received worldwide condemnation over the sordid account of Dana Majhi, a resident of Melaghar village in Kalahandi district, being forced to carry the body of his dead wife on his shoulders for about 12 kms after he was allegedly denied an ambulance by the hospital authorities on August 24.

Sources in the family and welfare department said on Thursday that the guidelines state that under no circumstances a repeat of the August 24 incident will be allowed.

Moreover, any kind of transportation causing disrespect to the dead will not be allowed, and bodies would only be carried out on stretchers or cots with mandatory ‘death slip’ to be filled up by a medical officer of the concerned hospital.

The guidelines also prescribes for the preservation of the bodies with proper respect and dignity to the dead.

In a non-medico legal case or natural death, the medical officer will hand over the death slip to the family members of the deceased, while in a medico-legal case or unnatural death case, hospital must immediately inform the local police.

In cases where people are brought in dead by their family mebers and/or deaths Often dead are brought to hospitals by their family members. In that case casualty medical officer on duty after duly examining the dead person as per rules will declare him/her dead and immediately inform the local police station.

On several occasions, unidentified persons die in the hospital. Again, in many instances unidentified bodies are brought to hospitals.

“In such cases, the medical officer on duty shall immediately inform the local police station.

“Security personnel finding people carrying away a dead body under suspicious circumstances from the hospital premises are immediately required to ask for the ‘death slip’, to prevent the illegal taking away of bodies from hospitals,” the guidelines state.

Similarly, funds will be provided to all police stations for carrying bodies in case of unnatural deaths. While rural police stations will be provided with Rs 1,500, police stations in towns will be given Rs 1,000 and in special cases Rs 2,000 for carrying the dead.