Kathmandu, Dec 11: It has been observed that the unclaimed dead bodies of males are six-fold higher than the unclaimed bodies of females across the country.  

The seven-year data obtained from Nepal Police showed that the ratio of the unclaimed dead bodies of females to males is 1:6.

Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, Senior Superintendent and Spokesperson of Nepal Police said that the proportion of the male unclaimed bodies has been observed to be very high than females. “The dead bodies of males are recorded to be around six-fold more than unclaimed dead bodies of females while observing the data of the last seven years.”

According to the data so far, 145 unclaimed bodies have been recorded in the current fiscal year, of them, 108 were males and 33 were females, and four were skeletons. In the fiscal year 2077/78, there were 332 unclaimed dead bodies, of them, 257 were males and 57 were females and 18 were skeletons.

Similarly, in the year 2076/77, 299 dead bodies were recorded to be unclaimed, of them, 238 were males, 56 were females and five were skeletons. In the fiscal year 2075/76, 252 unclaimed dead bodies were recorded, of them, 204 were males, 41 were females and seven were skeletons.

A total of 254 unclaimed dead bodies, 209 males and 36 females, including nine skeletons, were found in the fiscal year 2074/75.

According to Kunwar, mainly, the bodies of the contactless people, people living in streets as well as in shelter homes turns are unclaimed. Majorly, there are more males than females in streets and shelters, therefore, unclaimed dead bodies are more in comparison to the unclaimed dead bodies of females. 

“When the unclaimed dead bodies are not claimed by relatives for over one and a half months, then, we send the letter to different organizations for the cremation, which then cremates the bodies”, said SSP Kunwar, “We send the unclaimed dead bodies kept in the morgue for cremation only after they begin decaying.”

Identification process of the unclaimed dead bodies

Nepal Police (NP) is solely responsible for the management of the unclaimed dead bodies. After discovering the dead body, NP takes it to the morgue of the T.U. Teaching Hospital and performs the post mortem.

In this process, evidence such as photos of the dead and clothes, are kept for the further identification process, after which are uploaded to the website, Dead Body Identification.

Sapana Roka Magar, the crematorium worker at the NGO named Action for Social Change said that after receiving the letter from Nepal Police after cremating the dead body, the cremation worker takes the body for cremation at the Aryaghat.

She said, “I have cremated unclaimed dead bodies of over two years, and sometimes, 20 bodies in a week.”

She added that mostly the dead bodies of people living in streets and shelter homes are unclaimed.

Male unclaimed bodies eightfold higher than females in Kathmandu Valley

A total of 163 unclaimed dead bodies were found in the Kathmandu Valley in the last seven years, where, unclaimed bodies of males have been observed to be eight times more than female unclaimed bodies. Of them, 141 are males, 17 are females and four are marked as skeletons.

As many as 26 unclaimed bodies have been discovered in the Kathmandu Valley in the year 2078, 39 in the year 2077, 41 in the year 2076, 8 in the year 2075, and 49 in the fiscal year 2072/73 and 2073/74, as per the data of Nepal Police.