Crowdfund Raises Millions for Cemetery Workers

A COVID-19 crowdfunding initiative has been set up to ease the burden of crematorium workers in India, providing food, water, and sanitary equipment to those who chant prayers to release the souls of the deceased.

“This spreads a message of hope that people are willing to help each other in such unprecedented times,” says Mayukh Choudhury, chief executive officer of the crowdfunding platform Milaap, host of Nandini Ghosh’s innovative initiative to first provide food parcels, then sanitizers, drinking water, and water coolers to crematorium workers.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the daily number of bodies is tenfold, going from 8 a day to up to 150 a day in the largest and busiest of New Delhi’s crematoriums. The initiative started with the distribution of food to 100 workers in one cemetery, and this objective was reached within 48 hours. In the span of one week, Ghosh’s team reached out to workers in eight crematoriums and graveyards. On the crowdfunding platform Milaap, a new Covid relief campaign is launched every 20 minutes, and so far, it has raised $19.66 million for campaigns designed to distribute ration kits, personal protective equipment, ventilators, and cooked meals.