Hyderabad: Customised vehicle comes as relief for families

Hyderabad: With increased apartment culture in the city, the pandemic has brought new difficulties. Families who lost their loved ones were not allowed to bring bodies of the deceased into the complexes by the resident welfare associations.

Even if they were allowed, the families faced other hurdles, like performing Ghusl (death bed shower). Observing such hurdles, 'Youth Welfare Telangana', a voluntary organisation, decided to come up with some makeshift solutions and modified a tempo for catering to the funeral rites with trained youth.

Brought into service earlier this month, the project involved months of research by the volunteers as earlier projects in the country and elsewhere failed. "We studied the earlier projects and decided to come up with a solution, particularly in view of the pandemic.

After procuring a pre-owned Tempo Traveller manufactured by Force, we decided to transform it to suit the requirements. The R&D and modifications cost us around Rs 7.5 lakh, all through the donations," said Syed Jalaluddin Zafar, State president, Youth Welfare Telangana.

The changes involved coming up with stainless-steel chamber (anti-rust), hydraulics (for altering the height of platform), overhead tank, draining provision, among others, amenities for an overall smooth procedure. This Ghusl vehicle was transformed at workshops of Balanagar and Kishanbagh.

"We have been receiving calls from Gujarat and Chennai for similar vehicles. Even we received a call from the Central Wakf Council (Delhi) that has plans to take up a similar project at the national level. This is the first of its kind vehicle in entire Asia," informed Mohammed Waseem, general secretary.

Apart from four other vehicles, including three ambulances, and one vehicle for mobilising volunteers engaged during pandemic in the State, remains stationed in Balanagar, Kishanbagh, Qutbullahpur and Mehdipatnam for catering to the needs within the GHMC limits.

For performing Ghusul, youth, both men and women, have been trained. In the case of a Covid body they wear protective gear. The voluntary group has been engaged in services of different communities, particularly in transporting bodies from hospitals/houses to graveyards and crematoria.

"Apart from Muslim community, since April 2020, we got opportunity to serve more than 2,000 dignified last rites for all communities in Telangana, which include 427 from Hindu, Christian and Sikh communities," added Waseem.