Poverty, stigma behind bodies floating in India’s Ganges river

Villagers along the river say cremation expenses rose during pandemic, forcing many to immerse or bury bodies in sand.

Lucknow, India – Virendra Kumar, a resident of Ajrayal Kheda village in Unnao district, about 520 kilometres (323 miles) from India’s capital New Delhi, says he had to bury the dead body of his son on the banks of the Ganges River instead of cremating him. “My son Arun Kumar was 18 and was suffering from epilepsy since he was 10. He was sick and denied admission by a private hospital when he suffered a seizure,” the 54-year-old father told Al Jazeera, sitting outside his shanty hut in the village. “So we were getting him treated with a local doctor [quack] and the cost of treatment even locally was about 2,000 Indian rupees ($28) a month. Yet he breathed his last on May 9 at home.”