This is Pakistan’s first digital grave! A QR code has been added to the grave of Dr. Ruth Pfau – a renowned philanthropist who dedicated her life fighting leprosy in Pakistan. Hailed as ‘Mother Teresa of Pakistan’, Dr. Pfau was born in Germany, and died last year in Pakistan. She is buried in Gora Qabaristan, Karachi.
Dr. Pfau has received several honors, including Hilal-i- Imtiaz, Nishan-i-Quaid –i-Azam and Hilal-i-Pakistan. State Bank of Pakistan also issued a PKR 50 commemorative coin. And now a QR code is installed on her grave that visitors can scan on their smartphones to know more about her life and work.
It reads, “For detailed biography of Sr. Dr. Ruth Pfau, scan the QR Code”.
This is the first time that a QR code has been added to a grave in Pakistan. The trend is not new globally though. It’s only now that we have seen it happening in Pakistan. And as mode and more people become aware of it, we can expect more graves to go ‘digital’ sometime soon.
Adding a QR code to graves of renowned personalities is one good way to make the general public aware of their work. It is lot easier to scan the code on your phone and read, than standing there and reading the obituary, while others await in the queue to do the same. Quick-Response codes make access to information easy and simple. This is a good first step to equip burial places of historical figures.
