Yesterday in the city of Bengaluru, the administration has assigned 265 acres of land for burial and cremations to cope with the desperate situation. Corpses are piled up inhumanly in hospitals, outside health centers, and in ambulances due to a shortage of space in the mortuary. Dead bodies are lined up for the funeral pyre for hourseven on the footpaths,before they are cremated. Mass cremations and burials are happening. “We have never seen something like this in the country,” said Finny Philip, an Indian board member of the Lausanne Movement, in an urgent video appeal for prayer. And the increasing number of dead servants of God is just the beginning of the woes.” “However, in the villages where most Indians live-in poverty, without a proper health care system, and the church is experiencing both growth and persecution-the number is almost the same. “Nearly 2,000 theologically equipped workers-a conservative figure, given the news that regularly pours in through social media-are dead in cities,” he told CT. “The leadership crisis has already hit the church in India,” said Richard Howell, principal of Caleb Institute, a seminary in Haryana, and former general secretary of EFI. “And when you consider that it takes time and effort to build up leadership, I believe we are headed for a leadership vacuum.” “The church has lost a lot of leadership,” he told CT. “We estimate 350 to 400 pastors, evangelists, and bishops have lost their lives-and that is a conservative figure,” said Vijayesh Lal, general secretary of EFI, citing tallies in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, and other states. “The other leaders are also experiencing severe strain as they struggle to cope with the impact of the pandemic.” “One of the heartbreaking results of this intense second wave in the country is the tragic loss of senior leaders of Christian organizations and seminaries as well as church pastors and lay leaders,” he told CT. The current crisis is one of the darkest times in the history of the nation, according to Prabhu Singh, principal of the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS), an evangelical research institution in Bengaluru. In response, today was jointly declared a day of prayer and fasting by the leaders of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI). Leaders of Christian churches and ministries in India have been overwhelmed by cases and deaths among their staff and congregants amid the unavailability of treatment. Health experts believe both figures are an undercount. The Health Ministry also reported 3,915 new deaths on Friday, bringing the confirmed total over 234,000 (behind only the US and Brazil). The 414,188 new cases pushed India’s official tally to more than 21.4 million, behind only the United States. On Friday, the number of new confirmed cases breached 400,000 for the third time since the devastating surge began last month. India has been setting global daily records of new coronavirus infections, spurred by an insidious new variant that emerged here. On social media and in television footage, desperate relatives plead for oxygen outside hospitals or weep in the street for loved ones who died waiting for treatment. Too often, their efforts end in mourning. Authorities in Sehgal state have found “a small number” of bodies on the riverbanks, he said, but didn’t give a figure.With life-saving oxygen in short supply, families are left on their own to ferry people sick with COVID-19 from hospital to hospital in search of treatment as India is engulfed in a devastating surge of infections. Singh, a senior police officer, said authorities had earmarked a cremation ground on the Prayagraj riverbank for those who died of COVID-19, and police were no longer allowing any burials on the riverfront. Several policemen were at the scene, but allowed a family who arrived in a small truck to bury a 75-year-old woman at the site. Each grave was covered by an orange, yellow or reddish cloth and appeared laid out in the same direction. On Saturday, an Associated Press photojournalist estimated there were at least 300 shallow riverside graves on a sand bar near near Prayagraj. The cost of cremation has tripled up to 15,000 rupees ($210). Ramesh Kumar Singh, a member of Bondhu Mahal Samiti, a philanthropic organization that helps cremate bodies, said the number of deaths is very high in rural areas, and poor people have been disposing of bodies in the river because of the exorbitant cost of performing the last rites and a shortage of wood.
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