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Prakash Tailor, from the Damai caste, faced the challenge of not finding anyone to attend his mother’s funeral due to his Dalit background. He had to wait for two days with his mother’s body before it could be cremated. On February 16, the body of 61-year-old Mana Tailor was transported by tractor over a distance of 50 kilometers to Timpdigad-6 in Tadha Patan Municipality, where the cremation was eventually carried out.

Mana Tailor, from Sigas Rural Municipality-1, Angdegada, passed away at 11 a.m. on February 3. With only one Damai family in the settlement, Prakash faced the challenge of organizing the funeral as no one was available to attend. He called his relatives and family members from Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur, including Mohan Tailor, Shyam Tailor, and Kapil Tailor, to help with the cremation. Prakash booked a tractor for Rs 25,000 and, with the assistance of relatives and neighbors like Gyanendra Airi, transported the body to the cremation site on February 16. Despite the enduring social belief that non-Dalits should not carry the bodies of Dalits or attend their funerals, Gyanendra Airi said that some people gathered overnight at the deceased’s home, as Prakash Tailor’s family was the only Dalit family in the settlement. He added that he also attended the funeral on a motorcycle with his brother-in-law, Narbahadur Saud. He mentioned that there is no tradition of carrying a Dalit’s body on the shoulder for the funeral in their community. “Even though others didn’t attend, I went to the funeral because such superstitions need to be eradicated,” he said.

Prakash Tailor has been teaching at Bhumiraj Basic School with a monthly salary of Rs 8,000. The 30-year-old Prakash also serves as the secretary of the community forestry user groups. In the surrounding settlements, approximately 300 residents, both Dalit and non-Dalit, live. Prakash expressed the anguish of feeling isolated when none of the other Dalits, nor anyone else except for the Damai caste, were willing to attend the funeral. He mentioned that even within the Dalit community, there is still no tradition of sharing food or carrying the body on the shoulder for the funeral between the Bishwakarma and Damai families.

Prakash’s family had migrated about 40 years ago from Bagadi, Patan Municipality-4, to Andegada in Sigas Rural Municipality-1. Although the cremation site for the residents of that settlement is located at Dubke Khola in the same area, it requires carrying the body on foot to reach there. After hearing that the body had been left alone in the yard all day, some local youth, including Gyanendra Airi, volunteered to watch over the body overnight, drawing the attention of local representatives. Ramchandra Airi, the Chairperson of Sigas Rural Municipality-1, explained that it has become difficult to find people to attend funerals, as all the educated youth have migrated abroad in search of employment. Due to a lack of people to attend the funeral, they talked about arranging a funeral vehicle or tractor on February 15, but the tractor was only ready on February 16, and the cremation was completed then.

 

Nari Badu