We will soon reach to the moon, with our own home-built technologies. Before we feel proud of our achievements, a video that is going viral will make us cringe. In a distressing video that has surfaced online, a group of men are seen dangling dead body from a 20-feet-high bridge to cremate the dead just because they are denied road access.
Kuppan, 55, of Narayanapuram Dalit Colony, had died in a road accident and was to be cremated the next day after the post mortem. However, his relatives alleged that they were not allowed to take the usual route to the cremation ground as the area belonged to members of the upper caste. The relatives were forced to carry the dead body to a funeral pyre arranged on the banks of Palar river. “We have been cremating our dead on the banks of the Palar river for the last four years,” a Dalit villager said.
Social media is rife with criticism after the video went viral. Vellore collector A Shanmuga Sundram said a revenue team will inspect the site and take necessary action. Reportedly, the district administration has decided to allot 50 per cent land for the Dalit community for cremation so that such incidents won’t repeat.