Caste stigma! Youth forced to drag corpse of mother for last rite as nobody else turn up

Koraput: In an appalling instance of inhumanity, a youth had no other way but to drag the corpse of his mother to the cremation ground for last rites as nobody else from his community or village turned up to shoulder the body. And this reportedly occurred due to casteism. The incident took place in the Bairagi Matha village in Jeypore area of Koraput district in Odisha on Thursday.

The deceased woman has been identified as Mukta Paraja.

As per reports, the old mother of Mangala Paraja died today. Following the sad demise of the old woman her son and his wife prepared everything for the last rite but no one either from their community or village turned up.

As nobody came to shoulder the corpse, Mangala had no other way but to drag the corpse along the road till the cremation ground for execution of the last rite. His wife Kuni tried to help out her husband but she was not capable to carry the body and thus it slipped off her hands several times and fell on the ground.

It has been learnt that the fellow villagers and community members did not turn up due to casteism. According to reports, six months back once Mangala Paraja had consumed food in the house of a person from some other caste. Accordingly, the villagers had outcast his family. Even they were not allowing him to the community feasts of the village.