Orissa woman prepares funeral pyres, rewrites rules

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Orissa woman prepares pyres, rewrites rules

Priya Ranjan Sahu, Hindustan Times

Sambalpur, September 17, 2007

 

According to Hindu rites, women are not allowed inside

crematoriums. But Shanti Behera, 49, spends most of

her time inside the Sambalpur municipality

crematorium. And whenever chants of " Ram naam satya

hai " draw near, she knows that's her cue to start

preparing yet another funeral pyre.

 

Shanti goes about her job with a missionary zeal,

digging holes, picking up logs and sizing them on the

pyres. " I don't remember how many pyres I have

prepared till now, " she says.

 

Shanti came to Sambalpur as a 15-year-old bride. Her

husband, Gopal, worked in the crematorium as a non-

muster roll (NMR) employee, preparing funeral pyres.

The two lived near the crematorium with their four girls.

Gopal's untimely death in 2003 forced Shanti to take up

a job. Two of her daughters were married by then but

she still needed to fend for herself and her remaining

two children.

 

" The future looked bleak. I had to feed my girls. The

municipality would not give me a job because my

husband was an NMR employee for more than a decade.

So I had to take a bold decision, " says Shanti.

 

After her husband's last rites were over, she went to the

crematorium and started doing what Gopal used to do -

preparing funeral pyres. She and her daughters survived

on whatever the relatives of the deceased gave her.

 

Initially, seeing a woman doing what has always been

considered a man's job did raise a few eyebrows. But

that did not stop Shanti from doing her duty. After some

months, the municipality too accepted her as an NMR

employee.

 

" Shanti impressed everybody with her sincerity and

dedication, " says Girish Patel, chairman of the

Sambalpur Municipality.

 

In the last four years, Shanti has prepared more than

5,000 funeral pyres. She is available in the crematorium

around the clock, seven days a week. Initially, she used

to be moved by the plight of the relatives. Now, she

goes about her job stoically, accepting it as a fact of life

and as God's wish. " Still at times, I cannot control

myself when I have to prepare a pyre for children and

young people, " she said.

 

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