Recent reports and images of a man carrying his wife’s body on his shoulders for over 10 km in Odisha’s Kalahandi district, went viral on social media.

After he was refused an ambulance by hospital authorities, the man had to struggle his way back home on top of a hill, about 50 km away. His wife had succumbed to tuberculosis at a government hospital, which asked him to vacate the bed immediately after she died because of a dearth of beds at the facility.