A Non-Resident Indian based in the United Arab Emirates moved to the Supreme Court in India on Monday seeking direction to the Center arranging free transplantation of mortal remains of Indian nations who die abroad.
The NRI Ashraf Thamarassery had claimed to have helped in the repatriation of 4,700 bodies to 38 countries across the world.
According to the plea, it has claimed that Air India transports bodies under “Sentimental Shipments” category but the procedure adopted by the national carrier is inhuman and humiliating in nature as it weighs the dead body and then imposes charges on it.
A bench of justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer issued a notice to the Centre and sought its reply in six weeks.
Ashraf currently works in Ajman and deals with the difficulties and challenges faced by the socially excluded Indian emigrants in the Middle East countries especially in the Gulf region.
He sought direction to all the states for the preparation of statistical records of the total number of Indians abroad inclusive of their present working status.
The Kerala native, Thamarassery is known for his philanthropic activities in the expatriate community. He has also been conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Award in 2015.
In his plea, he also sought direction to ensure that all Indian citizens, who are leaving the country for any reason, must have mandatorily secured for Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana scheme at the very beginning while they are leaving the country.
Referring to a late Parliamentary paper published in 2017, his plea said that 7,694 bodies of Indians were stranded in foreign countries in 2015.
“Out of which 2,690 bodies were alone in Saudi Arabia and 1,540 in the United Arab Emirates.
“The majority of the bodies were of poor Indian migrant workers living in a very bad condition, having no awareness about their basic labor rights because of which their repatriation becomes a very complex and cumbersome procedure taking a lot of time causing huge grief and sorrow to their respective family members both socially as well as financially,” the plea said.
He said that the biggest problem that Indians face is to pay the huge amount of money that Air India imposes upon the dead body, “by way of weighing the body which in itself is inhuman and violative of its Right to dignity enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution”.
“Direct the Respondent No. 2 (Air India) to stop the practice of weighing the dead body and then levying charges upon it. Direct the Respondent No. 1 (Centre), through its Indian missions all over the world to arrange all the necessary documents for the process of repatriation of dead bodies expeditiously,” the plea said.
The plea as well sought a way to provide quick financial assistance to Indian nationals suffering any serious/critical injury.
“Once a person dies due to either natural or unnatural circumstances it must be the state’s duty to ensure that the deceased is transported to the place where the body belongs to, in a dignified and respectable manner without causing undue delays and unnecessary formalities.
“The basic requirements must be duly complied with but in a speedy and cost-efficient manner. The charges and procedures must be construed in such a manner which is free of cost to the underprivileged and lower strata of the society,” the plea said.
Recently, the Air India decided to charge a “flat rate” to bring back mortal remains of Indian nations from six Gulf countries, which have a momentous community of immigrants.
-Sowmya Sangam
