Disposal of Muslim Covid-19 Fatalities: A Compromise Proposition

The controversy over the Gazette notification issued in April 2020 under the hand of the Director-General of Health Services mandating the disposal of all Covid-19 affected dead bodies by cremation has escalated into an ethno-religious political fervour of unwanted, unintended and counter-productive proportions. What was essentially a directive predicated solely on protecting national health concerns during a raging pandemic whose contours were still to be determined within the scientific community (due to the newness of the phenomenon), the primary concern was to eliminate even the remotest possibility of transmission of the virus by destruction of it through subjecting the mortal remains to intense heat.

This directive apparently impinged on sensitive religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Muslim community which purportedly prescribes burial as part of the sine qua non for post-mortal salvation. The medical concern enforced as legal directive was predicated on the possibility of transmission of the virus to other human beings via the medium of water, especially since the groundwater table in Sri Lanka is comparatively at a very shallow level as is demonstrated by the high proportionate dependence of the populace on well water, especially among those living outside the immediate precincts of urban areas served by pipe-borne water.

This writer being a concerned Sociologist and Demographer (and not being a virologist, hydrologist, epidemiologist or an expert on medico-legal issue) sees the need to resolve the impasse with minimal fallout for the large majority of the national population. The world-renowned Sri Lankan Virologist, Prof. Malik Peiris has more than highlighted this urgency in a Sunday Weekly of December 20 stating ‘I fear that this dispute on burial for those who have strong religious beliefs in this regard, is already leading to increased transmission because of the loss of community participation in sections of the affected community. So, rather than reducing risk, this policy is already increasing the risk’.

The compromise this writer would like to propose is to minimize the potential for contamination via the contact with the water table and to maximize on the acceptability of burial of affected bodies by selected recipient communities. The presence of the wet and dry zones of this country would commonsensically suggest that the dry zone’s water table would be at a much lower depth than that of the wet zone. The potential for contamination through water would thus be minimized if the limited number of Muslim burials were carried out in the dry zone. One might add that Prof. Malik Peiris himself in the same article states that ‘it is absurd to say that there are NO parts of Sri Lanka where the water table is sufficiently below ground level that burial is possible safely’.

But what of the misgivings that have been raised within the national population at large? The renowned American Sociologist of early 20th Century, W. I. Thomas famously propounded that ‘once the situation is defined as real, it is real’ irrespective of its truth content and that social reality operates from that premise. Coming closer to action predicated on premise and hypothesis, the world at large recently witnessed the much publicized episode of the unearthing and incineration of millions of mink culled on the suspicion of being afflicted with covid-19 by Denmark, a very-developed Scandinavian country subscribing to impeccable health standards. If the Sri Lankan dry zone is more ‘suitable’ for effecting Covid-19 affected burials, who in the dry zone will raise minimal opposition to such burial within their community. Since the animosity to the directive was raised mainly by the Muslim community due to its religious opposition, obviously the Muslim communities residing in the dry zone would be in the best position to extend overtures of Islamic Brotherhood and accept the afflicted bodies of their fellow Muslim brethren for burial. Such localities should be selected on the proportionate presence of the Muslim community since the potential for opposition would be minimized therefrom.

It is a well known fact that in spite of maintaining the highest inter-ethnic growth rate in independent Sri Lanka, its Muslim community accounted for 9.2 percent of the national population at the 2012 Census of Population. However, it is also common knowledge that this proportionate share is at a maximum in the Amparai District (climbing to 43.6 percent). Perhaps, what is not that well known is that when one goes down the administrative ladder to the next Divisional Secretarial level, there are three DS Divisions viz., Kalmunai, Saindamarudu and Akkaraipattu, each of which has more than 99.0 percent of its population belonging to the Muslim community. (There are three more DSDs, – viz; Nintavur, Addalachenai and Irakkam – in the same Amparai District which have in excess of 90 percent belonging to the Muslim community.)

These statistics have been provided to suggest that any suitable Grama Niladari Division within any of the above DSDs in Amparai should theoretically have hardly any ethno-religious opposition to accommodating the burial of any covid-19 afflicted Muslim person’s body. In fact, they should welcome the opportunity to support their brethren in a Pan-Islamic embrace of Muslim brotherhood in their hour of need.

At the practical logistic level, what entails our proposition? To date this writer (voluntarily restricting his sources primarily to the print medium) has seen only one fleeting reference to the ethnic composition of the covid-19 afflicted dead. Malinda Seneviratne (Sunday Island, 13th December) stated that up to a count of 129 covid-19 dead, there were 44 Muslims among them which works out to 34.1 percent, well above three times the population representation of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka. (This would legitimately demand medico-health based probing and answers as to why this is so and initiate activities and programmes to mitigate this trend; the pursuit of that endeavor is, however, outside the scope of our current practical proposition.)

What needs to be emphasized is that as at the 10th month of covid-19 evolution in Sri Lanka, the numbers in Muslim burials in this manner is still within very manageable proportions. But if we for a moment entertain the visitation of a worst case scenario akin to what is being enacted in the USA currently, the numbers would be hugely and staggeringly compounded. According to the statistics provided by Johns Hopkins University and daily displayed by CNN, USA is well on a tragic trajectory to record 1,000 covid-19 deaths per day on an average when they complete one year since they recorded their first death. (This means that the death toll which has moved beyond 325,000 on Christmas eve will be over 365,000 deaths when they surpass 365 days since they recorded the first death and this, I believe, is around late February or early March 2021.) The Sri Lankan population on the threshold of 22 million (census scheduled for 2021 once accomplished will confirm the actual figure) is 1/15th the size of USA of 330 million. Thus when prorated for population we would have faced over 24,000 covid-19 deaths nationally and if the current ethno-mortality status quo prevailed, over 8,000 of those bodies would belong to Muslims and this would happen by mid-March next year. If, however, the currently unfolding covid-19 scenario persists with around 190 deaths by Christmas eve the tally at the end of one year since recording our first death in March should not be exceeding 350 nationally and under 120 Sri Lanka Muslims and not anywhere near the ghastly USA worst case scenario of over 8,000 Muslim covid-19 affected deaths.

Our proposal thus is for all parties to relent on their rigid stance; the government to consider burial in the dry zone (if necessary, with a supplemental gazette notification) where the contamination of the water table will be minimized and for the sensitive religious communities to accept the dead bodies of their brethren and accommodate the requisite space and extend necessary religious services. The government needs to bear the expenses of transporting the dead in acceptably hygienic condition as is prescribed by the medical professionals.

Dayalal Abeysekera

Ph.D., (Brown)