The Business of Death

Types of deaths other than old age natural death: communicable disease, non communicable disease, injuries. Biggest cause of death: heart disease, other than that: lungs, stomach, kidney, blood. On average, women live 5 years older than men.

Religious expenses of death rituals: in Hinduism- Rs 5000-10000, Islam- Rs 6000-10000, Christianity- Rs 15000-20000. Coffins cost from Rs 2000 to several lakhs for options like golden edged, glass top, wood choice, etc. In parsis, a dead body is placed to be eaten by vultures.

In Tamil Nadu, death is celebrated with song and dance to happily bid farewell to the deceased, in Rajasthan, professional criers are hired for 12 days for crying out loud. In Varanasi there is Kashi labh mukti bhavan which rents room at Rs 20/day to those who will die within 15 days, because dying in Kashi is believed to lead to salvation.

Scams in death: Lal Bihari ‘Mritak’ in his 60s was declared dead on paper at the age of 18, so he kept the title ‘Mritak’, because for about 20 years he tried in vain to get his details corrected in government offices. According to him, in UP itself about 40000 living ‘deads’ are available, leading to transfer of their property rights to other people and fake insurance claims. Fake death certificates are made these days in Rs 500-1000.

Term insurance: monetary benefit to nominee at early/unexpected death of person paying premium.

Sign for organ donation after death, annually, 3 lakh patients require organs in India, whereas only 16 thousand donate.

Will: Document declared about distribution of property/assets of the person after his death.

PS: I am from Varanasi 😂😂

Detailed video: https://youtu.be/4ruWqSOmWfg?si=PAGWFmS0nDMLhISm