| Sordid saga of Samba hamlets:Acute poverty pushes families to disabilities | | Stark reality: Govt schemes, SW deptt benefits out of reach of villagers | | Akshay Azad
Jammu, Jan 29: “Jab Bi Raat Gaye Mere Ghar Main Chor Aata Hai,
Garibi Ki Kasam Mujhe Bahut Sharmindgi Hoti Hai”, the couplet of a poet, aptly describes weak economical condition of Thuru Ram (45) of village Palth, district Samba, who is residing in a 8X10 feet kiosk, one falling wall of which is supported by wooden planks besides the rear wall, which had collapsed during last rainy season.The damaged wall is yet to be reconstructed and the roof too is covered with some torn plastic sheets. The pitiable plight woven with saga of poverty in scores of famlilies in line truly substantiate that a thief would feel ashamed of daring theft.
Three old rusted boxes, a charpoy, cover of casettee player hinging on a wall, filthy bedding and a quilt were the complete groceries in possession of Thuru Ram. The pathetic conditions in which Thuru Ram is leading life goes beyond description which has only been compunded by the condition of his younger son Gopal Dass Rasgotra (19) who is mentally unstable. Nevertheless, he is of some help as often prepares food for his father at a hearth placed inside the same kiosk, after death of his mother years back.
To do away with depression, Thuru Ram has taken refuge of spirituality, draped a yellow colour sheet and a “Mala” in his neck, to avoid wrath of other neighbourers, from whom, he and his son Gopal Dass are apparently facing an unknown threat. Unshaven faced, Gopal Dass was repeatedly speaking a sentence, in a little angry tone, “You came from city ?, Okay so I explain you. The female, who lives in that big house, says that she would kill me”, and in lighter vein, made a query, “A person who drives a bus is called Driver na?, and the person who bandages the wounds is called a Doctor Na........?”.
Having no clue about the whereabouts of his elder son, who had gone missing from his house around 4 years back, Thoru Ram attributes the non-return of his son to home, a handiwork of some evil spirits. Thoru Ram’s younger son Gopal Dass, is an IQ patient, but Thoru Ram does not considers him a patient and has never even approached to hospital. Probably his weak financial condition has not allowed Thoru Ram to get his son treated as he remained busy to arrange bread and butter for the two member family.
Gopal Dass, is not a registered as mentally challenged and therefore , is not getting pension from Social Welfare Department.
Such cases are unending in this area, with pitiable living conditions on account of poverty and deprivation. Jambar Ram (60) son of Kanaya Ram of adjoining village Mananu, is vocally impaired and was residing alone in a small kiosk, adjoining to his brother’s (Bishambar Dass) kiosk.Though Jambar Ram, is getting pension from Social Welfare department, but this too suffers irregularly. His financial condition is almost similar to Thouru Ram and has very negligible household items at his home. One charpoy, one hearth in one side of kiosk and some utensils are his complete property besides Jambar Ram has tied the broken door of his kiosk with small ropes.
His younger brother Bishambar Dass (48), a labourer by profession, was in the BPL category list, but recently his name was deleted. Showing the rubble of his kiosk, damaged by landslide, Bishambar Dass said that he got Rs. 1900 as relief from district administration Samba, but that too after running to concerned offices several times.
Bishambar Dass, had been claiming that except his elder brother Jambar Ram, another mentally challenged person was in nearby village, but after few hours, he introduced his son Devi Dass (27), who was also mentally disabled (IQ patient).
“Since his childhood, he is like this and is not in a condition to speak others”, Bishambar Dass explained, adding that Devi Dass was not getting any type of pension as was not registered. Kalu Ram (40), a cousin of Bishambar Dass had reportedly lost his mental balance, after his wife had left him along with two sons.
“Earlier, Kalu Ram had some minor problems but after his wife and children left him, he has lost senses”, Bishambar Dass said.
Villages of this rural belt of district Samba, which is on way to one of famous tourist destination of Jammu i.e Mansar lake, has large number of such disable cases, half of whom are mentally challenged. A quick glance of these villages, only points toward the fact that the weak economical condition of these families ( belonging to schedule caste community), is responsible for malnourishment, which probably led to physical and mental disabilities.
The small hamlets namely Balole Nal, Balole, Mananu, Palth, Satah beside others which comprise mostly of schedule caste families is dotted with such cases. Not even a single person from these families is a government employee but doing some menial jobs to earn their livelihood. One interesting, yet astounding fact about these villages is that, the houses of people were constructed of mud and wood, but all the lanes were cemented.
Karnail Chand (52) of village Balore Nal, who had raised walls of three rooms, but was able to get roof construction on only two rooms said with hope on mind, “After working for many years, I had started making cemented house, but after completion of roof of two rooms, I went short of money, so made a Kuccha roof. Now whenever I will have money, the roof on third room will also be constructed”. However, he rues about the fact that government has made all the lanes cemented but has no scheme for the hapless villagers.
Gopal Dass (22) son of Karnail Chand, is also disabled but according to Karnail, “He speaks very little. During his early childhood, he had attack of pneumonia twice, after which he had left school and now remains at house and doing some minor chores”, he said.
Shango Devi, wife of Karnail Chand, who had a kid of nine months (Vansh Kumar), in her lap, says that Vansh Kumar has not grown up like other children of his age. “He is now nine months old but looks like five months. Doctors are saying that he is weak and will grow up, but God knows better”, she said while showing the small kid, who was seemingly looking a patient of down-syndrome.
Hanso Ram (52) and his wife Vaishno Devi (35) of village Balore Nal are multi challenged including physically and vocally. A labourer by profession, Hanso Ram said that he had admitted his son Sohnu (7 years) in school but other children were scuffling with him. “My son Sohnu was weak enough and unable to tackle them, so left the school”, he said. Though the couple is multi challenged but are not in the list of mentally disabled people maintained by Social Welfare Department and are getting any pension benefit.
Rimply Devi (8) daughter of Satpal (labourer) of village Balore Nal is orthopedic disable patient, her brother Uttam (10) is Intelligence Quotient (IQ) patient, Sanjan (3) son of Sushma and Ranja (labourer) of Balole Nal is IQ patient, Rita Kumari (8) daughter of Rattan Chand (labourer) IQ patient, Hanso Ram (52) and his wife Vaishno Devi (35) of Balole Nal are some of mentally disable cases of village Balole Nal, having only 50 households.
In nine hamlets of district Samba, there were 89 cases of physically disabled, out of which 39 were mentally challenged. The number of mentally challenged are more in the villages having population of Schedule Caste community (Mahashe) but when one shift to village Satah, which is predominantly a village of Rajputs, there is only one mentally challenged person namely Ramesh Lal son of Bayanta Singh.
The physical or mental disabilities are apparently directly associated with economical condition of these families but the schemes of Social Welfare department as well as Central government are too distant from reach of these villagers.
District Social Welfare Officer Samba Jasmeet Singh says that few years back, government had put a rider on the pension scheme for physically/mentally disable people, which has been removed now.
“We have no shortage of funds to pay pension to any disabled physically or mentally. There were 761 pension cases pending with the department which are cleared now”, he said, adding that to get pension under Integrated Social Security Scheme (ISSS), one has to simply fill a form, following which same would get Rs. 400 as monthly pension.
The Panchayat representatives are given the right to identify such cases and forwarded to Social Welfare department. “Any person, whose application is forwarded by the Panchayat, is getting pension from the department”, he said.
He further said that though there was no scheme of department to identify these cases and it was the responsibility of Panchayat to forward the applications. “Even if some person is left behind, same can personally contact me. I assure you that I will personally visit the village along with a doctor and fill their pension forms”, he said.
Contradicting the claims of Social Welfare Officer, Area Director Special Olympics Bharat (J&K Chapter) Lalit Kumar, who has been conducting surveys for the last many years in district Samba, said that the ground reality was quite opposite to the claims of authorities.
“In year 2012, we had met the then Deputy Commissioner of Samba Mubarak Singh and when we had talked him about the mentally/physically disable cases, he had said that there would be some left out cases (50-60) otherwise, all other handicapped are getting pension, but when we had presented proofs and explained before him that there are 6,000 left out cases in district Samba, he had expressed ignorance”, Kumar said.
He further said that the administrative inertia in all government departments was ruling the roost. “Majority of mentally/physically challenged people are from poor and illiterate families, who have no access to government departments. Even their applications are not considered, sometimes by Panchayat representatives and many times by officials at Social Welfare department”, he argued.
He further says that even the person, who were pensioners have to fill application form annually. “We had met numerous people, who were asked by SWD officials, to fill new form for pension, which is an uphill task for them. There is no pubic-transport facility for Deputy Commissioner Office Samba due to which the people have to walk one kilometer by foot. Even files of several applicants have gone missing from the department, so how the Social Welfare department is claiming that there is no pendency of pension cases?”, he questioned.
“Majority of people in society, Panchayat representatives and so the concerned department officials are totally insensitive about the mentally/physically challenged people, so never take their cases on priority basis”, he claimed.
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