In India’s health collapse, two sons had to take mother’s body to crematorium on motorbikes

The scenes are repeated across the country due to the lack of beds and ambulances.

At first glance, the video of three people sharing a motorcycle seat on the streets of India amid the coronavirus crisis doesn’t seem unusual. But the picture hides a heartbreaking story: These are two sons holding their mother’s body between them as they take her to the crematorium due to lack of ambulances.

The brothers, Narendra Chenchu ​​and Ramesh, had been trying for several days on Tuesday to get their mother, in her 50s, known as G Chenchu, admitted to a hospital in the state of Andhra Pradesh when he collapsed and died from Covid-19.

With no one available to take her to cremation for the collapsing health system in the city, young people were forced to put her on her motorbike and drive 15 kilometers to bid her a final farewell.

Meanwhile, in Ambarpur, a town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, images of a 70-year-old man have emerged forced to carry his wife’s body on his bike in a nearby village for cremation, after residents refused to perform the ceremony for fear of contracting the virus.

Footage shows the frail man as he tries to push the bike, then crouches on the side of the road after the fall of the bike and the body. According to reports, someone was moved, called the police and managed to find an ambulance to help the man send his wife away.

The shocking images emerged as India set another record breaking day (379,257 cases and 3,645 deaths), the crisis being far from finding a brake in the current epicenter of the pandemic.

In the state of Uttar Pradesh, the Prime Minister Yogi adityanath He was accused of trying to cover up the dire situation by threatening to arrest and confiscate the property of anyone who reported oxygen shortages and hospital beds.

// Crematoriums have collapsed in New Delhi, corpses are burned in parking lots

Adityanath, right-wing ally of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, previously denied any shortages of “beds, oxygen or life-saving medicine” in the state and accused those who say otherwise of spreading “rumors and propaganda.”

A few days after the declaration, Police arrested man who posted on social media looking for oxygen to his 88-year-old relative, claiming his ‘fake tweet’ led others to accuse the government of wrongdoing amid the crisis.

In this second wave, the infection spread from cities to rural areas where medical care is often non-existent, and people turn to wizards for “miracle cures”.