Amid reports of several dead bodies found buried on river banks and floating in rivers from across the country, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the centre to enact a special legislation to uphold the dignity and protect the right of the dead. The commission sent a detailed advisory to the central government and state& UT governments in this regard.
Underlining that Article 21 of the Constitution extends not only to living persons but also to the dead, the human rights body said “it is the duty of the State to protect the rights of the deceased and prevent crime over the dead body”.
It also recommended that mass burial/ cremation should not be allowed as it is in violation of the right to dignity of the dead. The commission also said that family members or relatives are not there to perform last rites due to infection or other reasons local administration should perform the last rite taking into account the religious/ cultural factors.
The commission said that although there is no specific law in India for protecting the rights of the dead, the courts have time and again reiterated to uphold the dignity and protect the rights of the dead. It also cited several international covenants as well as guidelines issued by various governments from time to time emphasizing on maintaining Covid-19 protocol and giving decent burial/cremation according to respective religious customs and practices.
The human rights body also suggested various measures to local administration to ensure diginified treatment of dead. It included appropriate disposal of the dead body, encouragement of electric cremation, maintenance of database, creating temporary crematoriums among others.
“Environment-friendly cremation practices like the usage of electric crematoriums may be encouraged, which would also reduce the burden on the existing burial grounds/ crematoriums,”
NHRC also called upon NGOs and Civil society organisations to come forward to take responsibility of performing the last rites of the unclaimed and unattended bodies in a dignified manner. The human rights agency also asked the Centre and states to maintain a district-wise digital dataset of (all) death cases for which it suggested that a dynamic web portal must be created. On Thursday, the agency issued notices to the chief secretaries of two states and centre over the complaint about several dead bodies found floating in the Ganga river.
