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How the better half dies - I
By P. Sainath
The Hindu, Sunday, Aug 01, 2004
URL: www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2004/08/01/stories/2004080100061100.htm
How the better half dies - II
By P. Sainath
The Hindu, Monday, Aug 02, 2004
URL: www.hindu.com/2004/08/02/stories/2004080203411200.htm
The after-death industry
By P. Sainath
The Hindu - Aug 08, 2004
URL: www.thehindu.com/2004/08/08/stories/2004080804671400.htm
Kathulappa with his grandson Narasimhulu. No post-mortem examination
was done when his son Chinna Saianna took his own life in December,
2003. They could not afford it. - Photo: P. Sainath
MAHBUBNAGAR, MEDAK & ANANTAPUR (A Kathulappa wants to talk to us
about his son, Chinna Saianna, but cannot. Tears fill the old man's
eyes each time he tries. So he turns to his grandson Narasimhulu to
have him tell us the story. It is not much different from that of
hundreds of other farmers who have committed suicide in Andhra
Pradesh. With one twist in the tale.
This family's chance of getting any compensation is bleak. No
post-mortem examination was done last December when Saianna took his
own life in Jengarala in Mahbubnagar district. Which means they
cannot now establish suicide as the cause of death.
It was not done because they could not afford it. And there are many
such households that did not get post-mortems done. Some, for
sentimental reasons. Others, because it costs too much.
In most places, `post-mortem' (Latin for `after death') is taken to
mean the autopsy or examination of a body after demise.
That is, to help determine the cause of death. In much of rural
Andhra, it means a heap of other things. It is a thriving after-death
industry.
Paying for it
It means, for instance, "you have to pay the police, the doctor, the
orderly, the man who drives the body to the hospital," says G.
Shekhar in Jengarala. Seeing us struggle with this, he laughs:
"Surprised? When even getting the simplest signature from an official
costs Rs.50, did you think this would come free?"
In theory, yes. There is no charge for a post-mortem. But people do
end up paying.
Most of the households hit by suicides that we surveyed across six
districts had forked out money for this.
Many had spent around Rs.5,000. Several had shelled out much more.
Some had ended up losing as much as Rs.10,000 on the process.
"It is illegal. It is also heartless to torment people already in
grief and so deep in debt," says Dr. M. Geyanand. A medical
practitioner in Anantapur, he points out that: "One in the family has
just killed himself because of debt. Then comes this pressure to
incur more of it." Many of those who paid speak freely of the sums
spent on the different actors. But are cagey when it comes to saying
what they paid the police. Typically, the man driving the jeep with
the body to the post-mortem venue got Rs.2,000. The police took
between that and Rs.3,000. The `orderly' or attender got Rs.1,000.
And the doctor's charge varied from nothing to Rs.2,000.
"A cost of Rs.6,000 is guaranteed," says Shekhar in Jengarala. Even
where it is less, it is still a burden for families drowning in debt.
"The thing is meant to be entirely free," says a disgusted Dr. Desam
Sreenivasa Reddy in Kalyandurg, Anantapur.
"In any case, the role of the doctor is next to nil. The attender
does most of the work. He cuts open the body. He dictates what he has
found and the doctor merely takes notes. Few will do that attender's
job. In one case, a man who had been transferred on promotion was
held back because there was no one else to do this work."
Post-mortem problems
However, it is not just the farmers' suicides that see post-mortem problems.
As Dr. Reddy says: "When it's a medico-legal case, the pressures
become intense. And the role of some of the forensic people is
terrible. What happens if you call a murder a murder and it upsets
somebody really powerful? Those involved can and will be bullied to
fix the result.
There have been controversies over a couple of exhumations, too.
Their final verdict is in doubt.
At some point down the line, people begin to wonder: why fight and
get into trouble? Why not just take the money? This logic of `why not
make some money' has now extended to the suicides as well."
"All that, however," say Dr. Reddy and Dr. Geyanand, "in no way
justifies this extortion. Nor the harassment of those unable to
resist."
Both doctors are with the Jana Vignyana Vedika, a body that aims to
promote popular science and the scientific temper. The JVV, of which
Dr. Geyanand is State president, has been active in tracking many
aspects of the ongoing agrarian crisis.
The after-death business is widespread. The family of Duggala
Mallappa in Anantapur spent close to Rs.10,000 after his death.
In the case of Gobaribai, whose husband Kamali Nayak committed
suicide in Vajrakarur, it cost Rs.6,000. "We raised it through a
chanda [contribution] from all our friends," says this Adivasi
family. It was over Rs.3,000 for the extremely poor Dalit family of
Pandhi Posaiah who took his life in Chinnarevali in Mahbubnagar. All
Posaiah's sons are bonded labourers. They took the money on loan.
Adding to the debt
In Akapur, Nizamabad, the family of Ponnala Hanumantha Reddy borrowed
Rs.5,000 for this. They are already Rs.5 lakh in debt.
There were some families that escaped without paying anything. Like
those of Dasari Mahendru in Anantapur and Sangolla Narasimhulu in
Medak who spent nothing. And where the usual actors were more
sensitive. But these were not many. In the case of Mahendru,
neighbours joked that "even the police found nothing to squeeze here."
But it is the families that did not seek a post-mortem who today face
more trouble. How do they now prove it was a suicide? "This is a huge
problem," says Dr. Reddy.
"How will they get their compensation if they cannot prove it?" More
so if the death occurred a while ago.
The family of Prathap Reddy in Chelmada who killed himself in May
2003 in Medak now wishes they had sought one.
"They simply did not have the money at the time," says a neighbour.
It is also what Kathulappa is trying to tell us in Jengarala. His
tears are now on his cheeks.
For many in the crisis here, death does not come as the end. Just as
the beginning of a new burden for their families.
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