Mumbai: Social worker dies of Covid-19, cousin alone carries his body from Sion hospital morgue

MUMBAI: A 46-year-old social worker from Dharavi who was very active in distribution of meals and rations to the needy in Dharavi during the lockdown period, died of Covid-19 on early Friday morning.
He is survived by his wife and two school going kids and old parents. He died after fighting Covid battle for nearly 45 days.
What has shaken the family of six is the fact that when the deceased's cousin on Friday went to claim his body at Sion morgue, there was no one to hand over the body to him.
"I am in the state of shock that there was no one to hand over the body of the person who serve the society relentlessly in Dharavi slums. The Sion hospital provided an ambulance but there was no ward boy and my son himself had to enter the morgue alone wearing PPE kit, identified the body and uploaded it in the ambulance," said Siddhart Medhe, the Vice President of Dharavi Nagrik Seva Sangh. The victim was cremated at Sion Hindu Samshan on Friday afternoon.
Several members of the NGO have expressed deep shock over the demise of the social worker.
The NGO like many other had been distributing ready to eat meals and rations. "All our volunteers had taken precautions wearing face masks, hand sanitizers and maintained social distancing while distributing the meals but still two of our volunteers contracted the disease in the month of May. One was admitted to KEM Hospital while other in Sion hospital.