BOUDH: Leprosy is curable but the social stigma attached to it is not. The family of Jayanarayan Sahu (75), a cured leprosy patient of Basudebpali village in Manamunda here, realised this harsh truth when villagers refused to turn up for cremation of the septuagenarian on Wednesday.
As per reports, Jayanarayan was afflicted with leprosy but was cured after necessary treatment more than a decade and half back. He has also issued a Leprosy Negative certificate. However, Jayanarayan stayed in isolation and rarely came out of the house due to the social stigma attached to the disease.
Jayanarayan shared his house with wife Kamala, son Sanjib, daughter-in-law Sunitarani and his unmarried daughter Manjurani. Sources said the family was almost ostracised by the entire village when Jayanarayan married off his elder daughter.
On the wee hours of Wednesday, Jayanarayan breathed his last. At the break of the dawn, Sanjib went to call his relatives and villagers for cremation of his father. However, no one turned up even after more than five hours leaving the family helpless.
Unable to wait any longer, Sanjib along with Manjurani and his brother-in-law Ramesh Chandra Sasmal carried Jayanarayan’s body on a cot to the cremation ground and performed the last rites.
Talking to this paper, Sanjib said it was more painful when relatives and community members did not even turn up for the mandatory ritual in which a widow should have broken the bangles of his mother Kamala. ‘’My wife despite being married was forced to perform the ritual,’’ said a visibly disturbed Sanjib.
He informed that Sarpanch Minakshi Sahu had sent `2,000 through her husband while no officials have visited the family yet.
This comes close on the heels of a similar incident at Saharapali of Ulunda block in Sonepur district on June 5 when villagers boycotted the cremation of a cured leprosy patient Jagyasini Bhoi (62), forcing three persons to carry the body on a bicycle and bury her on the outskirts of the village.