Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Aman Yadav aka Kabir, a 26-year-old from Varanasi, has not confined himself to the safety of his home for a single day since the COVID 19 pandemic broke out last year. Just three days after the nationwide lockdown was announced, he was on the move, helping the needy and cremating the dead in the ancient city of Varanasi. 

When Gaon Connection got in touch with him, Yadav had just got off the phone.  

“I got a call from an unknown number. The person on the other end told me that somebody has passed away and the family was not willing to risk performing the cremation. I will take the body to the Ganga ghat and cremate it with proper rituals,” Yadav told Gaon Connection. 

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Yadav also ferries the sick to the hospital on his motorbike that acts as his makeshift ambulance. He said doing this gave him great satisfaction. “I consider myself lucky that I can help people across religions,” he said. 

More than fear, it is the sense of victory he savours when he helps COVID 19 patients, or performs the last rites for those who lost their life to the coronavirus. “I feel a sense of victory when I can arrange for an oxygen cylinder that saves a life,” he said. “It is this feeling that gives me the courage to do what I do,” he added.

Yadav has become a well known name in Varanasi and even the police seek his help when it comes to cremating unclaimed bodies. 

“The inspector general of police (IGP) Vijay Singh Meena had issued a special pass, permitting me to travel within the city and help the needy during last year’s lockdown,” he said.

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But it has been a bumpy ride. Initially, Yadav struggled to get people to support him. It was tough raising money for his work. 

“People thought  I was crazy.  But gradually, they began trusting me and contributed to my cause,” he said. 

Yadav’s father (who passed away recently) refused to support him. He even tied him up once to prevent him from going out, said Yadav. “But I did not quit,” he said. But his mother understands his passion to help the needy and inspires him to continue doing so.

Yadav has helped several tourists who visited Varanasi when the lockdown was lifted last year. “Davis, a French tourist, developed breathing trouble and was apprehensive that he had contracted COVID 19.  I helped him to the hospital on an e-rickshaw and got him medicines after which his condition improved,” Kabir recounted.

‘Rs 1 crowdfunding campaign to help the needy’

In order to help the needy, Kabir launched a fund-raising campaign on facebook in which he asks people to donate a rupee.

“We connect with people through social media and request them to contribute just a rupee to help the cause. People pay me through Google Pay and Paytm,” he said. The money raised has so far been put to use in cremating more than 60 bodies. “I recently cremated a person who had died of corona and his wife had mental disability,” Yadav told Gaon Connection.

He was lucky, he said, that so many people sent him money for the work he did. He confessed he had not once had to use his personal money for the charity he does. 

But, Yadav talks of setting up a non profit. “I wish to organise, and have a system in place. A proper audit of all the donations will then be made to record the finances,” he said.