Odisha man denied final rites by kin for inter-caste marriage

In a deeply disturbing incident highlighting persistent caste discrimination, a 55-year-old man from Kirtipur village of Batemura panchayat in Sambalpur district was denied funeral support by his own community on Wednesday because he had married outside his caste.

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The deceased, Sudam Bhoi, had lost his wife earlier and is survived by a daughter. After his death in the morning, neither his relatives nor villagers came forward to help carry the body or participate in the funeral procession — all reportedly because he had married the woman from another caste years ago.

With no help from his caste brethren or neighbours, the local police outpost at Gunderpur reached out to a local volunteer, Ramdas Panda, who, along with other social workers from Sambalpur, brought the body to Rajghat cremation ground.

In a powerful moment, Sudam’s daughter, Pratima Bhoi, lit the funeral pyre — performing the last rites that no one else was willing to take part in.

The incident has sparked outrage among social activists, bringing into sharp focus the need for stronger awareness against caste-based exclusion in death as well as life.

Worth mentioning, earlier in another incident in Keonjhar district, a man’s body was denied dignity even in death, as villagers refused to conduct his last rites following a hospital post-mortem. An NGO intervened to ensure his cremation on August 5 this year.

Social activists had said that incidents like these highlight the urgent need for awareness campaigns to counter superstitions and promote dignified death for all, irrespective of beliefs surrounding medical procedures like post-mortem.

“Parjanpur villagers have a social stigma that they do not take any dead body to their village or even touch it, after a post-mortem of the body is conducted. However, ‘Bharasa’ Parivar usually cremates the abandoned or unidentified bodies in the district,” the NGO president, Lambodar Mahanta, expressed.