The Neglected Workers of Crematorium

Crematorium as a place of work sounds a very strange and even repulsive thought. Arvind Shrouti and I decided to speak to the people who worked there.

I have been exploring the lives of people at the ‘bottom of the social pyramid’ for several years. This website has several posts on that subject.

A crematorium is the exact opposite of a place like Essel World or Disney World, I thought, as my car reached ‘Amardham Smashanbhumi’ (Amardham Crematorium) at Nigadi, Pune. There is a big parking area in front of the entrance.

And the burial ground for Muslims is adjacent to the Amardham; the symbolism of that situation will not be lost on anyone, I felt.

As you enter you see a large garden and a small road leading to the shed where funeral pyres are set. But it is about 150 meters away. The garden obstructs full view of the shed. There are tall trees and there are small square platforms, maybe one meter by one meter by length and width, and about half a meter in height, made of granite stone. People come to this place to perform last rites of the deceased, and they make use of these structures.

We moved to our left where there are two buildings – one of which houses two electric furnaces, and the other building has a furnace which can work on both gas and electricity. There is a large area for the mourners to assemble and wait.

We were received by Bala Bhandari at the entrance gate, and he took us to the change room. It was a small room where the personal clothes of the workers were kept, and three plastic chairs. Four workers in the room were excited to receive us.

“Nobody talks to us and nobody cares for us”.

“A few Municipal officers and corporators met us at various times, but nothing was done. Our problems remained unresolved. When Keshav Gholve attended funeral of someone, he saw our plight and said that he will immediately redress our grievances.”

“As I heard him say it, I told him that every corporator assures us, but nothing is done for us. I suggested that I was listening to one more empty promise. Keshav seemed offended, he said he will soon attend to our issues.”

“When he became Deputy Mayor (of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation) albeit for a short duration, he kept his promise and raised our pay. We got good pay increase.”

“Yes, from Rs 12000 to Rs 18300 pm, that was about three years ago. We are so thankful to him”.

“Our pay was Rs 4300 in 2015, it was increased to Rs 7200 a few years later. During Corona it was increased to Rs 12,000 pm.”

“The problem is that with our pay increase the Contractor, our immediate employer, says that our gross pay is now more than Rs 21,000 pm so we are no longer covered by the ESI Scheme. (The Employees State Insurance Scheme is a social security scheme that offers, to its members, several benefits including sickness, hospitalization, accident etc. Members get these benefits at a nominal or no cost.)”

“The contractor adds our annual bonus amount to our monthly earnings and claims that we are excluded from the ESI Scheme. This is wrong way to decide whether we stand covered under the scheme or not. But he has effectively denied us the ESI Scheme benefits.”

“The contractor wants to save on the employers’ contribution, so he is pushing us out of the coverage by miscalculations.”

“What benefits do you get if you are not covered by the ESI Scheme?”

Balasaheb Bhor showed his ‘Ayushman Card.’ This is ‘a national public health insurance scheme of the Government of India that aims to provide free access to health insurance coverage for low income earners in the country.’

“The Doctors do not get reimbursement under this scheme and if at all, they get it extremely late, so this card is useless for us.”

All workers must be paid the prescribed minimum wage. If that wage puts you out of coverage of ESI Scheme it defeats the very purpose of the scheme. And Ayushman Bharat Scheme does not work for them! That’s double whammy!!

The Municipal Corporation has handed over operations of the crematorium to a contractor, and he employs less that ten workers. Net result: The crematorium workers do not get gratuity, because the Act would not apply. Moreover, the workers do not get the benefits like permanent workers of the corporation.

“The crematorium contractors are changed once in two-three years, so we have been moved from one contractor to the other. Sometimes the new crematorium contractor wishes to get his man employed here, but it does not work out. We oppose loss of job to anyone.”

There are two ways funerals done. One is called ‘paramparik’ meaning the traditional one; they use wooden pyre. The other is a modern method where the body is placed in electric furnace.

Interestingly, the Municipality engages two different contractors for these two types of cremations.

“We get personal protective equipment and hand gloves” the workers from traditional pyre contractor said. “And also, we get hand sanitizers and Uniforms”.

“They do not give us such protective equipment” complained the ‘electric furnace’ group workers, “Or uniforms and hand gloves. But the wages are the same.”

“There is too much smoke, dust and ash. It is an invitation to tuberculosis. We must clean the area after the funeral, there is always a small heap of ash lying there.”

“Bodies come to crematorium from medical colleges, hospitals, some are unclaimed. The bodies smell so badly that it is difficult to stay there or have a cup of tea later.”

“One body was brought here from Australia – the person must have expired there but was getting cremated here. The smell of chemicals was unbearable.”

“When we are alive, we have a name, it is our identity. When a person dies, he is referred to as ‘body’! Nobody calls the body by the name of the person!!”

Someone came in with a jug of tea. He poured it in paper cups for us. He was followed by a worker. ‘Hey, come on, they have brought a body’, he said. Two workers got up and left. I sneaked a peek through the partially open door. There was literally ‘dead silence’; some men had gathered around the electric furnace.

“We do not get any leave. All we get is our weekly off. We work here on all festival days, even on national festivals.”

“The contractor deducts pay if we take a day’s leave in addition to our weekly off.”

I looked at a young man who was watching our conversations. Smart he was and fair complexioned.

“Sir, I am Ijaz-ul-Rehman. I am a Bengali, and I was an employee of the company which made this electric furnace. I came with them to install it here and then stayed back.” Ijaz was speaking fluent Marathi.

“Do you face any issue because you belong to a different religion?”

“Not at all”

“If you are operating an electric furnace, how can you be classified as an unskilled worker? You should be paid the minimum wages for a semi-skilled or skilled worker.”

“You are right, but they treat us as unskilled workers.”

“Tell me, what was the first day at work at this crematorium like?”

“We felt bad when we saw bodies in the first week or so of our job. We get used to this work after a week or so, nobody likes this work to begin with.”

“What was the response of your family?”

“Sir, I stay in a slum area. Nobody liked it at home too, but nobody said anything.” The hint was clear – that the harsh alternative of unemployment was understood well in the slum area. “My wife used to ask me to take a bath every day when I reached home, now I wash my hands and feet.”

“Your education?”

“Commerce graduate. I joined during the Covid, in 2021.”

“I am also a commerce graduate and also MSW.” This was a shocker! “I worked for a few NGOs. Then I set up a shop where I sold material for funerals. From there getting in here was just one next step.”

Why would graduates take the job of cremating dead bodies? There was too much unemployment or there was inferior quality of education. Or both?

“Will you have difficulty in getting children married?”

“Sir, my daughter is trained as a nurse and works for a well-known hospital. His daughter (he pointed out another man) is educated as a lawyer. And his (pointing to another man) daughter is a commerce graduate working with a CA.”

“But the question is about marriage.”

The opinion was divided. Some felt that it will not be seen well by the bride’s or bridegroom’s family, others felt it will be the job of the bride or bridegroom which will matter. “Our children will not be entering this profession for sure.”

“What happened during Corona epidemic?”

“We worked long hours, stayed here. There were long queues of bodies waiting for cremation. Some were accompanied by relatives, some were not. Relatives used to stand far away from the bodies.”

“Many bodies of young persons came here especially in the second wave. We were at highest risk of infection. The Government declared an insurance cover of Rs 1 Cr during Covid, but they have withdrawn it.”

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government announced a special incentive to recognize the risks and hardships faced by frontline workers. All permanent employees and officers of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) received this incentive.”

“But they did not give it to us. How could they do that?”

“Keshav Gholve intervened, and we received the first instalment of ₹9,000. However, the second instalment of ₹30,000, which we rightfully deserve, is not yet paid.”

“Isn’t that unfair?”

“We were doing 14-15 bodies per shift during the pandemic. Some people in our residential area said, ‘Don’t come home, stay there.’ They were afraid that we will carry infections home. Every worker at this crematorium suffered from Corona.”

“Friends also asked us to leave our job, but we decided not to leave. It would have been a very wrong thing to do.”

“Tell me”

“I remember one incident during Covid, it is etched on my mind.”

“There was a long queue of ambulances carrying dead bodies and one ambulance caught my eyes. A three-year-old girl was standing near it with a doll in her hand. It was just outside the entrance. She obviously did not know that her mother was dead. I was moved by that sight. There were at least a dozen ambulances in the queue ahead of her mother’s. It takes two hours for a body to burn completely, so their turn would have come after twenty-four hours.”

“That’s terrible”

“I decided to move her mother’s body ahead of others. There was some noise about it; some people protested, after all they were also in queue. But I did not want the little girl to wait for a day. I ignored protests, asserted myself and moved her mother’s body ahead of others for cremation. The little girl went home much earlier than expected.”

“Oh! That’s really moving”.

“I still think of the little girl!”

There was a long silence. We decided to close the meeting and leave. We were speechless listening to the story. As we arrived at our car Arvind Shrouti said, “Man is an oasis!”

There is, of course, a big difference between lighting dead bodies with fire and living beings propelled by inner fire.

Note: Keshav Gholve is a well known labour leader who was a corporator and was also Deputy Mayor at Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation for a brief period.

PS: I gratefully acknowledge that this blog post (and several others on this website) were made possible due to cooperation and suggestion of Arvind Shrouti. Kudos, Arvind.

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” All work copyrighted.