Why Dhaka falling short of graveyards?

Suraiya Parveen lives at a flat in Mirpur. She greeted us with smiles but tears ran down her cheeks after a while. She said she was shocked to know a few days earlier that a dead body was buried on top of her father's grave. The news hurt Suraiya Parveen like a bolt from the blue.

According to theologians, Islam allows burying one dead body on another person's grave. Most of the people across Bangladesh believe in Islam. Suraiya Parveen's father, mother, first child and maternal uncle were buried in the graveyard located at Kalshi in Mirpur. She lost all those graves as other people's corpses were buried on top of each of them.

Spaces for burial of dead bodies have shrunk down drastically in Dhaka. Most of the graves in Dhaka are demolished every two years to bury more than one corpse due to lack of space. A massive number of corpses in the capital's Azimpur graveyard are buried on top of another. Lots of graves in Azimpur show more than one name plates which means two or three persons were buried inside it.

There are eight state-run graveyards in Dhaka. The graveyard in Azimpur contains around 30,000 tombs while the Banani graveyard accommodates approximately 22,000 graves. Very few graves have spaces allotted for them for 5, 10, 15 and 25 years which cost from 1 lakh to 15 lakh taka.

But most of the people cannot afford this amount as a result of which those graves are temporary on which new corpses are placed after every two years.

A lady informed on condition of anonymity that she has been able to protect her sister's grave for twelve years through a lot of hardships by employing a guy on payment for guarding her younger sister's grave. That girl had committed suicide, she added. Dead body disposal has become  difficult in Dhaka for people of all religions.

Two state-run crematoriums for Hindus are located in the capital's Postagola and Kamrangirchar. One private crematorium for Hindus is located at Rajarbagh Kali Mandir. These Hindu crematoriums were originally built on large areas but now those locations have become much smaller due to encroachment by land-grabbers.

The Christian community in Dhaka is also facing a lot of problems due to shortage of land. There are Christian cemeteries in Tejgaon, Wari and Mohammadpur in Dhaka where spaces are decreasing fast for burial of dead Christians.

There was no effective plan in Dhaka city for the burial of corpses as part of the city's urbanization framework. Professor Afsana Haque of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said, "A master plan for Dhaka was worked out during 1959. Another plan was formulated in 1995 and then another one came in 2015. There were no plans in between."

Professor Afsana Haque further said population in Dhaka is currently one crore and a half which is likely to reach two crore and a half by 2035. Situations may become much more aggravated in days to come, she remarked.

Since Dhaka is the most overpopulated city in the world, worries have come up about how this city would be run in the future. Dhaka South City Corporation's (DSCC) Chief Executive Officer Khan Mohammad Billal said that DSCC is encouraging people to take the dead bodies of their relatives back to their respective districts and plans are underway to provide monetary support and transports to people for carrying the corpses to village homes.

On the other hand, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) is building up a new graveyard, according to Chief Social Welfare Officer Abraul Hasan Majumder. A new graveyard has been constructed in Rayerbazar of Dhaka on around 81,000 acres of land which would be able to accommodate 90,000 tombs, Abraul Hasan Majumder further said.

Graves are everyone's ultimate destinations. The authorities in Dhaka city are making new plans for arranging more places for graveyards but people like Suraiya Parveen have meanwhile lost the last signs of their dearest ones.

-BBC