Crematorium near Bhiwani village school haunts students

Sat Singh

Tribune News Service

Bhiwani, May 21

It’s 42 degree Celsius outside and over 300 students at Government Primary School in Jeetuwala Jhor, squatting on the partially damaged floor, are having midday meal unfazed. Rain or shine do not matter to the teachers and schoolchildren, as all of them are braving the “dead”, says a teacher.

The school is being run on the premises of the Shyam Bhag committee since 1985, which houses a crematorium on the other side.

Khazani Devi, head teacher who has been in the school for over a decade, said: “When I joined the school, I fainted at the sight of a body being carried from the outside school and consigned to flames in the neighbouring complex.”

“On an average, faculty members and children witness 50-60 bodies a month being taken to the nearby complex. It attracts children’s attention and they rush to the school gate to have a glimpse,” said the head teacher.

The foul smell of the cremated bodies fills the air with a stench; but now we are used to it. “Many district education officials and local politicians have visited the school. They assured us that they would do something about the situation, they no one returned,” said another teacher.

“We are accommodating 300 students in two rooms, which were constructed by a family member of a person who was cremated in our neighbourhood decades back,” she said. On being asked about their viewpoint on sharing compound with the crematorium, girls of Class V said the sight of the dead haunts them at night.

“We don’t know whether we should send our children to the school or make them sit at home,” said a parent, who had come to get her second child admitted to the school.

District Elementary Education Officer Satbir Siwach said they had written to the state government to provide land for the school.