A Pun­dit has re­newed the call, on be­half of the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty, for the re­sump­tion of cre­ma­tions ac­cord­ing to Hin­du rites.

At present, open-air pyre cre­ma­tions are not al­lowed for those who have died from COVID-19, as a safe­ty mea­sure. 

Sev­er­al le­gal chal­lenges have been mount­ed against the State to have open-air pyre cre­ma­tions re-es­tab­lished. In ad­di­tion, some lo­cal med­ical ex­perts have in­di­cat­ed that very lit­tle of the virus is trans­mit­ted from a corpse and not­ed that there is no greater risk of a per­son be­com­ing in­fect­ed with COVID-19 at an open-pyre cre­ma­tion, as op­posed to an in­door cre­ma­tion.

In an open let­ter to Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh MP, the spir­i­tu­al leader of the Satya Anand Ashram in Aranguez, Pun­dit Satyanand Ma­haraj, points out that the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) has said open air cre­ma­tions do not pose a risk for ad­di­tion­al COVID-19 in­fec­tions. 

“Lat­est re­ports in­form us that open air cre­ma­tions, ac­cord­ing to the WHO—please see the In­ter­im Guid­ance 24th March 2020 In­fec­tion Man­age­ment of a Dead Body—do not pose a threat or ad­di­tion­al risk of COVID in­fec­tions,” the pun­dit writes.

Pun­dit Ma­haraj is urg­ing Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh to ad­dress the is­sue of open-air pyre cre­ma­tions with speed, since it is prov­ing “a dis­trac­tion from the fight against COVID 19”.

“I there­fore rec­om­mend that Hin­dus and oth­er groups that cre­mate in open air be al­lowed to re­turn to our tra­di­tion­al prac­tices,” he ad­vis­es the Min­is­ter in his let­ter. 

The Hin­du leader points out that be­cause the cur­rent re­stric­tions on their fu­ne­r­i­al rites: 

“Hin­dus have been made to pay up to 400% more for cre­ma­tions in cre­ma­to­ri­ums. Where­as a fu­ner­al would have cost sev­en to eight thou­sand dol­lars, the price now ranges from $25,000 to $35,000.”

He added: “In an econ­o­my where peo­ple have lost their jobs, they are now forced to bury our dead, which is not in keep­ing with [Hin­du] re­li­gious prac­tices. In ad­di­tion, some un­scrupu­lous fu­ner­al homes are tak­ing ad­van­tage of the dead by pick­ing the pock­ets of the liv­ing.”

Ac­cord­ing to Pun­dit Ma­haraj, this is a mat­ter of great con­cern to the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty, who are hurt over their “in­abil­i­ty to cre­mate our dead ac­cord­ing to our an­cient prac­tices”. 

He notes the le­gal chal­lenges al­ready mount­ed, and hints that more law­suits may be brought be­fore the courts.