Purushottam Patra, Gariaband. Now no one is unaware of the pain of Supabeda, which is called the village of kidney sufferers in the district. In the last 17 years, more than 130 kidney patients have died here and two dozen people are still ill. Amidst the government’s claims of relief and rescue, there are also widowed mothers who are no longer struggling with the disease but with the system.
In the picture you can see that Vaidehi and Lakshmi Bai are maintaining the files in the MNREGA office of Devbhog. Both are from the same Supabeda village, where kidney disease became a problem. Both their husbands were teachers, but Lakshmi Sonwani’s husband Kshitaram died of kidney disease in 2014 and Vaidehi Kshetrapal’s husband Pradeep died in 2017. The ill husband had to sell his land and jewellery, took out a house loan and spent money on treatment but could not save his life. Both have 3 children each. The responsibility of living and raising children is also on them. After the Governor’s visit in 2019, he got a job at a salary of Rs 10,000 per month at the collector rate. But this money is not enough to survive in the era of inflation. They still hope to help their children for a better future.
After the death of the head due to kidney disease, there are more than 80 such widows in the village who are struggling to run the family without any government help. Woman threading a thread while sitting on a sewing machine: Apart from Prem Sila’s husband Pritam Adeel, the mother-in-law and father-in-law of the family died of illness one by one 7 years ago. The responsibility of maintaining the younger sister-in-law and two children is now on Prem Sila’s shoulders. The condition of the house shows that somehow she is able to arrange food by relying on the sewing machine. Be it Gomti Bai or Reena Adil, Yashoda or Hem Bai of the village, all are running their families on the basis of labour.
Despite the instructions of the government, the District Panchayat has shirked its responsibility by forming only women’s group. In the last 6 years, the District Panchayat officers who claimed to provide relief to the pain of all the women by giving them 6 sewing machines, are not coming in front of the cameras. Here the health department officials are talking about fulfilling their responsibilities.