India 'scoronavirus crisis is surging at unprecedented rates, with 3,000 people dying every day.- One crematorium in
Delhi is receiving up to 90 bodies a day, compared to 10 on a typical day.
Jitender Signh Shunty stares at death every day.
"I have carried more than 45,000 dead bodies in ambulances and helped in performing more than 23,000 cremations to date," said Shunty.
He runs a service in Delhi, India, that transports and cremates bodies for free.
For 25 years, Shunty has been doing this work. But as India's coronavirus crisis surges to unprecedented heights, the bodies are piling up faster than ever. One crematorium where he works, Seemapuri Shamshan Ghat, used to receive 10 bodies a day. Now it's seeing up to 90 bodies on average.
He never imagined this, and he's struggling to keep up.
"These days i don't even get two hours of sleep," he said. "At 7 a.m. I come here, I start dispatching ambulances, or I arrange for a dead body to be picked up, then get it cremated."
It's so crowded that sometimes people have to wait for hours to cremate their family members, or even return the next day.
"I am a very strong person, and I like working," Shunty said. "I can work 21 out of 24 hours a day - I am not the kind of person who breaks down easily. But in this wave of the coronavirus, I've seen the dead bodies of small children and women who have become widows at a young age. They all have died for no good reason."
On the deadliest day so far, more than 3,000 people died in India.
Many Hindu
"We sanitize the body, pack it, and provide transportation for the dead body," he said. "We first get the wood ready, and then we carry the body. Some bodies are accompanied by only one or two people, so we help them carry the body too. We even help them build the wood pyre."
Even the basics, like wood, are running out.
"At this time we are buying wood for 100 rupees," said Shunty. "That's more than the rate fixed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. But we have sworn an oath that we will not let anyone suffer due to the shortage of wood, even if we have to sell our homes."
Usually, cremation costs 5,500 rupees, or $74. But Shunty's organization is doing it for free, relying on donations.
To date, more than 200,000 have died in India from COVID-19. But experts say the official tally likely underestimates the actual toll in the nation of 1.3 billion people.
"During COVID, I have witnessed startling scenes where a child refuses to cremate his father, whose dead body is lying in front of him, because he's scared," Shunty said. "There are many people who genuinely can't come with their dead because they are quarantining at home. They would ask us to undertake and perform the cremation. In this way, we have cremated around 150 to 200 bodies."
With a heavy, nearly impossible workload, Shunty never forgets that each body represents a whole life.
"My heart pains," he said. "And I feel deeply disturbed. I get sentimental when a dead body comes here, of a child or anyone. When people cry, I can't help but cry myself."
He worries about his own loved ones, too.
"I am scared that I might infect my family, as I spend a lot of time here," Shunty said. And because of this, I keep some clothes and some other important things in my car."
In the last wave, his whole family was infected, he was in serious condition, and one of his drivers died.
"We take all the precautions that we should. We wear gloves, masks, and socks. We sanitize. But when this is fated to happen, it will happen."
Seeing death day after day has taken its toll on Shunty.
"It's not just people who are dying in Delhi," he said. "It's humanity that is dying, too. This brings me to tears when I realize we are living in such a city where there is no value of human life."
"When a basic thing like oxygen is not available to people, then how can you trust humanity?"