In the quiet margins of our cities, there are those who pass without ceremony. They are found near railway tracks, on hospital benches, in ponds, and alleyways. Their names are unknown. Their stories end not with mourning, but with neglect.

Across India, the unclaimed dead are often absorbed by a system unequipped to hold them with care. When identification fails and no relative arrives, bureaucracy steps back. And so, the body waits, until someone decides to act. In Aligarh, that someone is Mr Vishnu Sharma.

The Reality Across India

• Over 43,000 unidentified bodies were recorded in India in a single year.
• Mumbai saw more than 14,000 unclaimed bodies along railway tracks in 15 years.
• Delhi recovered over 21,900 unidentified bodies between 2015 and 2020.
• Most unclaimed bodies are male, aged 40 to 60, often migrants or homeless.

In many cities, unclaimed bodies are cremated within 24 hours without identity verification. These are not rare exceptions. They are the daily cost of a system overwhelmed, and a society too often indifferent.

Vishnu Ji’s work through Manav Upkar Sanstha is not framed in activism or outrage. It is built on consistency, documentation, and care. Every body is treated with religious sensitivity. Every ritual is recorded. Every death is honoured, regardless of caste, creed, or circumstance.

In the process, a new standard has quietly emerged. One that refuses to let dignity depend on wealth or identity. One that reminds us that death, too, is a human right. This work cannot be left to volunteers forever. It calls for policy. For public discourse. For responsibility shared by the state and supported by civil society.

Until then, stories like Vishnu Ji do more than restore the forgotten. They remind the rest of us to look closer.