Gravedigger digs deep for his next meal!

Y. Maheshwara Reddy | NT
Bengaluru, Nov. 1

Muniyappa M. is happy to pose for a photograph, overwhelmed, perhaps that he has been asked to do so. He stands beside his wife, before two old almirahs, the tops of which are stacked with pots, pans, bags and buckets - in his one-room shelter at the edge of the Domlur Burial Ground, with five people crammed into it, space is hard to come by. 

He was six years old when poverty forced him to quit school and his father’s line of work - burying the dead. He’s 75 years old now and stunned to find himself the recipient of the state’s highest honour, the Rajyotsava Award. So far the domain of the affluent and the erudite, the Rajyotsava Award has changed its criteria, now bringing the state’s many unsung heroes to the limelight they deserve but never hoped to get.

Until 2018, Muniyappa’s monthly salary was a meagre Rs 1000. As the sole breadwinner for a family with six children, life was hard. When he dug a grave, he would receive a few thousand rupees as compensation from the families. “I used to work at the burial ground during the day and as a security guard at night to make ends meet,” he says.

Work had dwindled over the years and Muniyappa was sitting in his house one morning, when a social activist arrived, asking for his Aadhar card. “I couldn’t believe it when he told me why,” Muniyappa smiles. “My family and I are so happy.” Even with this high recognition, the future looks bleak.
Muniyappa has only one dream. “I want a sweet house for my family,” he says. Perhaps the BBMP will now see fit to give it to him.