{"id":61871,"date":"2024-02-13T21:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2024\/feb\/13\/delhi-india-unclaimed-bodies-last-rites-woman-cremations-for-strangers"},"modified":"2024-02-13T21:00:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T12:00:44","slug":"last-rites-for-delhis-forgotten-the-woman-who-cremates-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=61871","title":{"rendered":"Last rites for Delhi\u2019s forgotten: the woman who cremates strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pooja Sharma has dedicated her life to providing a dignified end for thousands of unclaimed bodies lying in mortuaries in India, though she pays for it herself \u2013 and it ended her engagement<\/p>\n<p>On an overcast, blustery day, with cars honking in the distance, a young woman covers a dead body with a shroud. With a helper, they place it on a bamboo stretcher and carry it up the steps of Delhi\u2019s Sarai Kale Khan crematorium. Once at the furnace, she gives it a gentle push to move it inside and bows her head in prayer.<\/p>\n<p>Pooja Sharma repeats the process for three other bodies. The people are unknown to her \u2013 unclaimed bodies for whom she performs the last rites.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2024\/feb\/13\/delhi-india-unclaimed-bodies-last-rites-woman-cremations-for-strangers\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pooja Sharma has dedicated her life to providing a dignified end for thousands of unclaimed bodies lying in mortuaries in India, though she pays for it herself \u2013 and it ended her engagementOn an overcast, blustery day, with cars honking in the distance&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":364,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1777,353,59,516,895,62,958,371,552,79,61,2191,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death-and-dying","category-delhi","category-global-development","category-hinduism","category-homelessness","category-india","category-poverty","category-religion","category-social-exclusion","category-society","category-south-and-central-asia","category-voluntary-sector","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/364"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61872,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61871\/revisions\/61872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}