The local administration refuses to acknowledge
the starvation scourge but Bibhuti Pati obtains proof
of children being sold for a mere Rs 800
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India’s
Shame: Bharati’s baby and her husband Amin Bhuyan
Photos Bibhuti Pati |
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District
Collector Rajkishore Jena says that Kanak’s child was not
sold and hunger was not the cause of her death. She was suffering
from asthma and TB, he claims |
The ghosts of starvation
in Orissa have now inched closer to Bhubaneswar, the seat of power in
the state. Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi (KBK) districts are cited
as examples of perennial poverty and despair. Now Deogarh district,
just 250 km from the state capital, has witnessed two starvation deaths
and the sale of a child within the last two months.
In the latest case,
Bharati Bhuyan, 28, died on June 7 at Deogarh’s district hospital.
While the district administration insists the death was due to septicaemia,
her husband Amin Bhuyan, neighbours and activists say she died of starvation.
Bharati and her
husband lived in penury in ward 11 in Deogarh, close to the district
collector’s office. After she gave birth to a daughter, Bharati’s
health deteriorated. The family could not afford medicines for the mother
and the child, or even a square meal a day. The six-month-old daughter
is now struggling for her life at the district hospital.
“When Bharati
was serious and not fit to take care of the new-born, I had to stay
at home. As a result, I was unable to earn and we had to go hungry.
It is not possible for me to provide proper medicines as well as food
daily. I have no knowledge about government schemes like BPL. When I
heard about it, I twice visited the ward councillor and the MLA’s
office, but it was my bad luck that I couldn’t meet them,”
said Amin.
District Collector
Rajkishore Jena refuses to accept that the Bhuyans didn’t have
food. “Amin, a BPL cardholder, had procured 35 kg of rice at Rs
3 per kg on May 14 under the Antyoday Anna Yojana (AAY). It could not
have been a case of starvation death. The post-mortem found some amount
of white porridge inside her stomach,” he said.
Sadashiv, a social
activist, has challenged Jena’s statement and asked for proof
that Amin had a BPL card and that his name was in the list of people
eligible for the AAY scheme. “The collector has not answered,”
he told Tehelka.
FACES
BEHIND FIGURES |
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Bharati
Bhuyan and Kanak Bandhamala die of hunger
in Deogarh |
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Two
starvation deaths in Bargarha |
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65-year-old
Jamuna dies of hunger in Bolangir |
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Eight-month
old girl sold for Rs 800 in Deogarh |
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One-month
old boy sold for Rs 1,200 in Koraput |
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Bharati’s
neighbours, Pradeep Dhala and Snehalata Dey, also blamed starvation
for her death. “We had provided some food, but it is not possible
for basti people to provide food regularly. Amin’s meagre income
was not sufficient for a lactating woman like Bharati,” they said.
Daleswar Gupta,
the Ward 11 councillor, admitted that Bharati’s death was due
to severe poverty, but refused to accept any blame for it. “The
municipality have provided Rs 1,000 for her cremation, and I have demanded
an inquiry,” he said. MLA Nitish Gangdev was not available for
comments citing ill health.
People blame Gangdev
and the municipal chairman for Bharati’s death. They complained
that officials neither visited the wards, nor listened to their problems.
They pointed out that most people below the poverty line do not have
BPL cards and those eligible for old age pension never get it.
There was another
case of starvation death in Deogarh in March. Two people also died of
starvation in Bargarha district and, an old woman allegedly died of
starvation in Bolangir district. Similarly, desperation has forced poor
people to sell their children as they are unable to feed them. In Koraput,
Kendruka Laki sold her one-month-old son to a fellow villager for Rs
1,200.
Such cases have
put the Naveen Patnaik government on the defensive, bringing back memories
of 2002, when the ruling bjd-bjp alliance was rocked by hunger deaths
in Kashipur and by reported cases of child-trade in Bolangir. In 2005,
eight people died in Ondirakanch village of Kashipur district after
they consumed inedible food out of desperation. (The deaths were first
reported by Tehelka, after which a team of doctors visited the village
and managed to save 15 people.)
In a case that
has created ripples across the state, Bijay of Bandhamala village in
Deogarh district sold his eight-month-old daughter Phula for Rs 800
to another couple in March this year, unable to meet the expenditure
for his ailing wife Kanak’s treatment. On March 22, Kanak succumbed
to her illness in the hospital.
News of the sale
and Kanak’s death was suppressed at the time. Rajkishore Jena
told Tehelka that there had been no such sale, and hunger was not the
cause of Kanak’s death. She was suffering from asthma and TB.
Jena clearly has his facts wrong, because Tehelka has obtained a copy
of Phula’s sale agreement from the buyer.
It is not unusual
in Orissa’s remote villages, especially in the tribal regions
in the western and southern part of the state, that the onset of monsoon
leads to spread of diseases, food shortages and deaths, many caused
by snakebite. State Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal told Tehelka, “Sarpanches
have been empowered to provide grains to poor families for up to six
months, but going by the past experiences, such deaths and child trade
is a regular feature.”
