It has already been more than 24 hours since 14-year-old Mahira’s charred body was identified by her mother and sister at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Mahira was one of 16 victims of a fire that broke out in Mirpur’s Rupnagar on Tuesday morning. A fire that gutted more than a garment factory and a chemical warehouse. It engulfed the dreams of 16 families.
It was at this garment factory that Mahira was working when the fire broke out, having joined as an employee on October 1, a mere 14 days ago. She was going to earn Tk 7,500 a month.
Absolutely devastated by the news of her passing, the last thing 15-year-old Sanjida – Mahira’s sister and employed at a different RMG factory – were expecting to occupy the next 24 hours was an indifferent, unorganised, and cruel health and legal infrastructures.
To look down upon the charred remains of one’s sister or one’s daughter is not an experience most of us have experienced thankfully. But instead of sympathy, but Sanjida and her mother – their father had passed – have yet to be informed when they might receive her body, or what is taking so long.
Having heard from fellow grieving members that there was to be DNA sample collection at DMCH, they arrived only to learn that authorities were merely collecting information for an eventual, unspecific date when DNA samples would be collected.
Sister and mother have had little to no time yet to fully process the news of Mahira’s passing, traversing the bureaucratic hellscape of incompetence and disarray endemic Bangladeshi government infrastructure.
She had broken down in tears, clinging to one of our photojournalists for support: “We’ve already identified the body! Why can’t they just release it?”
Only time will. But exactly how much time? For how long will they be strung along before they can have their sister, and some semblance of closure, back in their lives?
Just like Mahira’s mother, 15 more families are waiting in anguish to bring their loved ones home for a final goodbye.
