This Article is From Nov 07, 2016

No Money For Ambulance, Telangana Man Carries Wife's Body On Pushcart For 60 Km

Ramulu had put his wife's body on a pushcart and walked all along till he reached Vikarabad.

Telangana: A man in Telangana pushed his wife's body on a pushcart and walked 60 km as he had no money for an ambulance. After walking for almost 24 hours, Ramulu collapsed, tired and broken, and wept by the roadside until people alerted the police.

Ramulu and his wife Kavitha both had leprosy and begged to survive. After she died on Friday near the railway station in Hyderabad, Ramulu wanted to take her body to his village but was told by private carriers that he had to pay Rs 5,000 for an ambulance. He didn't even have Rs 1,000.

With his wife's body on a pushcart, Ramulu left Hyderabad on Friday morning but lost his way in the night. He reached Vikarabad on Saturday afternoon.

Soon, people noticed an elderly man weeping next to a woman's body.

Visuals show Ramulu wailing as people come and drop money beside him. Someone called an ambulance to take the body to his village in Medak district, around 80 km away.

"As he did not have any money with him to hire any vehicle, Ramulu put Kavitha's body on a pushcart and walked all along till Vikarabad and reached here last afternoon," G Ravi, a police officer in Vikarabad, said.

The man was reportedly forced to perform the last rites without any support from relatives. Though leprosy is curable, patients still face discrimination and are isolated by their families in parts of India.

Nearly three months ago, the nation was shocked and outraged by images of a tribal in Odisha, Dana Majhi, walking with his dead wife's stiff body on his shoulder, his young daughter by his side. Mr Majhi was denied an ambulance from a government hospital to take his wife's body to their village.
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