BALANGIR: Death of a widow in a remote village of Balangir, allegedly out of hunger, has exposed gaping holes in implementation of welfare schemes by the State Government.
According to sources, 59-year-old Mungre Chhura, a widow of Jairpada village under Bangomunda block, was leading a lonely life. As Mungre was issue-less and her husband had died five years back, she was surviving with income from sundry sources. Earlier, she worked in a small hotel in nearby Bhalumunda village.
Mungre was bed-ridden for the last 10 days and was unable to cook for herself. Besides, there was nobody to take her to the community health centre at Bangomunda or provide food leading to her death, sources said. Though Mungre’s brother Dukhu Suna resides in Bhalumunda, he was unaware of his sister’s illness. A daily wage earner, he was away on work. Dukhu, who came to Jairpada after being informed of Mungre’s death, alleged that his sister died due to hunger. She was not getting assistance from any welfare scheme of the State Government, he claimed.
District Social Welfare Officer Binodini Pradhan said it is unlikely that Mungre would have died out of starvation. However, she assured that she would inquire into the matter. Balangir, one of the 100 poorest districts in India, comes under extremely low and socio-economic indicators of development such as poverty ratio, literacy, per capita income, irrigation coverage, land holding, morbidity rate and health infrastructure. It also reports large scale migration every year.