What separates Syed Khaja and Syed Razaq from the rest is their job. The duo shift bodies of victims knocked down by trains to the mortuary. Sometimes they have to perform the unpleasant task of collecting severed limbs strewn on railway tracks.
It is no occasional job for them. In fact, they have been doing it for more than a decade and have so far shifted a few hundred bodies from accident spots to hospitals. “I have lost count of it. On some days I have shifted even four dead bodies,” Khaja (22) reveals.
While the gory sight of human bodies lying on tracks terrifies even the bravest, it hardly makes an impact on them. “We are used to the job and have been doing it since we were children,” says Khaja.
ADVERTISEMENT
Natives of Kurnool, the brothers have made the Kachiguda railway station premises their home. “We are present at the station, and in case police require our services they call us, and we go to the spot and shift bodies,” he says.
They are paid Rs. 500 for shifting a body from an accident spot to the mortuary.
The job involves going to the spot and handling the body with bare hands. Sometimes they wear polythene covers on hands to collect severed body parts.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Right from a child to an aged person, I have shifted many bodies,” says Razaq.
Earlier, their friends used to help them and share the money. But most of them took up other works, and now the brothers are left to handle the job.
“We are uneducated and have spent most of our lives at railway stations. But I feel bad when I find even educated people carelessly walk on railway tracks caring little for their own safety,” says Khaja.