Man in Karnataka seen carrying his dead daughter on a moped with her brother sitting behind.
A father in Karnataka barely had time to grieve before he was forced to carry his 20-year-old daughter's body from the hospital to his village on a moped, her uncle keeping her upright.
Rathnamma was taken to a health care centre with high fever and breathing trouble on Sunday morning at Tumakuru, some 70 km from Bengaluru. Her father Thimappa, a daily wage worker, says she died in his arms waiting for treatment. On Sunday, there were hardly any doctors and those present were allegedly not responsive. Thimappa was asked to shift his daughter to a bigger hospital around 20 km away. But there was no ambulance, and as precious moments were lost, Rathnamma died.
The state government claims it is trying its best to ensure enough ambulances but admits that doctors refusing to work remains a big problem in rural areas. "I will check... if there were lapses on part of the doctor or anyone, we will take action," promised Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Thimappa says he had to leave with his daughter's body in a hurry as he was told that if the police found out, he would have to wait for a postmortem.
"There was no ambulance around and everyone was asking us to shift the body from there. We didn't know what to do, we didn't have money also, so we shifted the body on a moped," said Gowramma T, the girl's mother.
The story of Thimappa has echoes in Odisha, where last year, Dana Majhi had to walk 10 km with his wife's stiff body on his shoulder because there was no hearse available at the hospital where she died.
After the heartbreaking image was seared in national memory, there were more instances of people being forced to find different ways of carrying home their dead relatives.
Last month, another man in Odisha walked from a hospital with his five-year-old daughter's body for a km before finding transport to go home to his village and perform last rites.