PATNAGARH: Except for the bamboo-walking stick, she has nothing that she can call her own. For 72-year-old Sundari Das of Ainlatunga village under Tamia gram panchayat, survival comes with a struggle.
Ever since the death of her husband 14 years back, every day puts forth a new challenge for this frail woman.
Though landless and begging for a living, Sundari’s name is listed in the Above Poverty Line (APL) category. With no home of her own, she languishes in the one room hutment of her son-in-law in the same village.
“My children are away living their lives, with none even turning back to look after their mother,” she laments.
With her name appearing in the APL category, several poverty alleviation benefits like old age and widow pension elude her.
Though eligible to get Rs 2-a-kg rice, penury has snatched her of that privilege too for which she is forced to beg and live with whatever little she manages to collect or go to bed without food.
She has been approaching the panchayat office authorities regularly but to no avail.
In fact the region finds itself in the midst of a paradoxical situation: Endemic masshunger co-existing with malnutrition. The situation prevails even as the country’s food security policy has an objective to ensure availability of food grains to the common people at an affordable price and has enabled the poor to have access to food where none existed.
In recent years, there has been a shift in policy focus towards household level food security and per capita food intake as a measure of food security.
But the paradox lies in the inherent flaws in the existing policy and implementation bottlenecks which denies Sundari of food even as fresh enumeration of BPL list is mired in controversy.