The departed can rest in green peace

It is often said that only when human beings set out on their ultimate journey to the other world, they are finally at peace from what they leave behind for their near and dear on Planet Earth. However, with increasing pressure on crematoriums in all major Indian cities and towns, enabling the dead to rest without being disturbed too has become a huge problem today.

Other than this major issue, maintaining the burial grounds to meet a basic level of cleanliness and eco-friendly ambience has also been a severe area of concern, with the living wreaking more havoc in these final resting places of the deceased by their overcrowding and willful neglect of civic sense.

Concerned over such a condition in Chennai, a group of youngsters uniting under a banner of Indian Social Welfare Forum have taken up themselves to keep the crematoriums clean, preventing it from degenerating into an open bar for vagabonds and a free-for-all toilet, offending the sensibilities of the relatives who send their dead members away.

It is nothing short of an audacious attempt that these committed youth have set out to achieve. Firstly, they would like to distemper and bring the burial grounds to a basic level of housekeeping, from where they would take off at the next level: imprinting social welfare messages on the compound walls, greening the space with plantations and above all, provide a live feed over public wifi to relatives who could not attend the funeral function.

This spirit-lifting initiative, reported in Kungumam newsmagazine, also says that the volunteers, who are college students pursuing professional courses would keep the momentum going by taking up the maintenance activities at the city crematoriums on the second Sunday of every month. ‘Is this not a task which can be called divine’ enquires Praveena, who is an enthusiast enrolling many of her classmates to join her to do this exemplary work.

By K Naresh Kumar