COVID-19 has been a dreadful nightmare for the entire world’s population since the past year. The virus has caused the death of more than 2 million people worldwide.
While all of us have been struggling with the changes this pandemic has brought upon our lives, COVID Care Network, a non-government organization, has taken it upon itself to curate an online memorial for pandemic victims of India.
The gesture is extremely caring and genuine and allows the family members to pay tribute to their loved ones who they lost due to the pandemic.
An Inclusive Initiative
The virtual memoir allows the families of the victims to pay their tributes and describe them, providing a space to talk about them. The website nationalcovidmemorial.in was launched this weekend by the NGO.
Mainly led by a team of doctors from Kolkata, the memorial seeks to be inclusive, trying to make sure that everybody can join and participate in this gesture.
“The memorial will restore some dignity of the people who died and were cremated without even their families being allowed to attend the funeral,” explains Dr. Abhijit Chowdhary from the network.
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In order to be able to post their tributes, family members need to upload the death certificates of the victims or provide their phone numbers which will be used for the verification process.
While the Indian society does not necessarily have a tradition of commemorating the dead via memorials, this online venture is certainly a place where the family members can attain closure, and revisit their memories.
A Way To Bid A Final Goodbye
More than 15 lakh Indians have died due to the virus and there were debates regarding the funeral rites of the victims.
The question of following religious rites and practices was of utmost concern but due to scientific and security reasons, all victims were cremated without the presence of their family members.
Patients infected with COVID-19 were procedurally isolated and did not have any contact with their family members. Those who succumbed to the virus did not in fact receive funerals following cultural procedures for a long time because of the danger of the spread of the virus.
While the families of the victims did not get a chance to say a proper goodbye to their loved ones, the memorial helps them etch their memories and speak about them. The memorial in fact allows these family members to attain closure.
The initiative is, in fact, a great way to honour the victims and more importantly provide some relief to the family members. While we are still combatting the virus and with vaccines slowly being available to everybody, the fight is not yet over.
While the memorial is an initiative to ease trauma, it is extremely difficult to gather data of everybody that has succumbed to the virus.
The NGO is looking for volunteers to make sure that the memorial is inclusive and that no one is left behind. With several patients belonging to the lower strata of the society, it is quite difficult to gather data and honour those victims without their families knowing about the memorial.
We believe that an online memorial is a kind gesture to help the families deal with their loss. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know by commenting below.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: BBC, Yahoo News, News Bytes
Find the blogger: @AishuPoshu
This post is tagged under: Memorial; Indian Online Memorial; COVID-19 Memorial; COVID-19 victims; Death due to covid; National covid Memorial; Covid Care Network; New Online Memorial for Covid Victims
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