The need for a law to provide for the establishment of public burial grounds and crematoria has assumed a measure of urgency in the State. While Goa may be a step ahead of many other States in providing its residents burial and cremation grounds, there are still villages in the State that have no proper facilities for the performance of a person’s last rites, and in recent years this has led to some tension in certain towns and villages across the State.
It is for the local governing body – the municipal corporation, council or village panchayat – to provide for the establishment for public crematoria and burial grounds, where people of all faiths can find a final resting place, where religious affiliation does not matter. The existing provisions, however, appear to be insufficient to make it mandatory upon the local bodies to fulfill their task. As per available data, there are 174 panchayats that have no kabrasthan for Muslims, 50 panchayats that have no cemetery for Christians and 43 panchayats that have no crematorium for Hindus in the State.
Almost a decade ago, the then Law Commission in its fourth report had drafted legislation for the purpose and it was to be called the Goa Public Crematoria and Burial Places, Bill 2009. Admitting that Christians had cemeteries attached to churches, and that there were some public smashanbhoomis and kabrasthans in the towns, the Commission in its report had stated, “It is however, observed that some smashanbhoomis are earmarked a per the caste system prevailing in the villages. In the recent past certain unsavoury happenings have underlined need to have public crematoria and public places. There have been incidents even though few in numbers wherein cremation was prevented because of differences over caste considerations or the deceased was a stranger to that village.”
Finding the need for common facilities, the Law Commission had proposed the establishment of the Act and drafted the Bill that would provide for the establishment of public crematoria and burial places at the State level, as well as in towns and villages, and also a mechanism for their upkeep and management. Nine years later this Bill is yet to get legislative approval and recently the Goa Human Rights Commission directed the State government to take appropriate action regarding the shortage of cemeteries, crematorium and kabrasthans in the State. The directions came based on an application filed by a trust on the lack of such facilities in the State.
The Bill drafted by the Law Commission provided for the establishment of a State Council that would look into the establishment and management of public crematoria and burial places. Some of the other important provisions of that Bill, besides the establishment of public crematoria and burial places, were that no new crematorium or burial place could be established in the State except under due authority and licence granted by the State Council. It also banned cremation and burial at places other than established or registered crematoria and burial places and that the crematoria and burial places established under the Act would be open for cremation and or burial to deceased persons of all religions, caste, creed, sex, domicile or nationality.
With urbanisation and an increasing population, the need for public crematoria and burial places is also growing. The draft Bill is already in hand, the delay in passing it can only serve to escalating the tensions instead of easing them. There is no reason to delay its enactment. The government has to act quickly on taking the bill to the next stage of making it a law, and the directions of the Human Rights Commission should serve as a catalyst in this direction, for even the dead should be respected and given the dignity of a proper final rites.
