Ekeomah Atuonwu
In India, a video of a couple begging for money to retrieve their son’s body from a hospital has sparked outrage.
The video, which was shot in Samastipur, Bihar’s northern state, shows an elderly man and woman going door to door asking for assistance.
The couple claimed they were forced to beg after a hospital employee allegedly demanded a large bribe in exchange for their dead son’s body.
The hospital stated that the employee would be disciplined.
The couple’s plight mirrors that of thousands of poor Indian families often harassed at hospitals and forced to pay bribes to get the job done.
See the video showing the old couple begging in the tweet below:
Mahesh Thakur and his wife said that their son had gone missing a few days ago.
He received a call earlier this week informing him that his son had died – the cause of death was unknown at the time – and that his body was at the city’s Sadar Hospital.
When Mr Thakur arrived at the hospital, an employee allegedly told him that the body would only be released if he paid a bribe of 50,000 rupees ($643).
The couple, desperate for assistance, decided to beg for assistance. “How can we pay this amount when we’re poor?” Mr Thakur said that he hoped to be able to perform his son’s last rites.
The couple’s video went viral on social media, causing outrage. A civil surgeon at the hospital, SK Chaudhary, said he was investigating the incident.
“Those who are found guilty will not be spared. This is an embarrassment to humanity,” he is quoted as saying by the NDTV news channel.
