RANCHI: Hunger strikes Jharkhand once again as a five-year-old girl Nimani allegedly died of starvation in Latehar district on May 16. Nimani had not eaten for four-five days.
The Dalit family, having no land and ration card, did not have any food grains in the house due to which Nimani fell unconscious of hunger on Saturday evening and died.
Nimani’s mother, Kalawati Devi, was struggling to feed her children for the last two months with no food in the house after her husband Jaglal Bhuiyan was trapped in a brick kiln in Latehar.
She received no support from the government except for one installment of Rs 500 in her Jan Dhan Yojana account and small amounts of food or cash from the school and Anganwadi.
“There was nothing to eat in the house due to which Nimani died of hunger on yesterday evening,” said Kalawati Devi. She and her children survived mainly by borrowing and some support from neighbors she added.
Father Jaglal Bhuiyan, who works in Latehar with two of his children, informed that the 10 member family was not getting any ration from anywhere as it does not have any ration card.
He had come with some money for Holi, but went back to the brick kiln after that and he has been away ever since, until 17 May.
“My daughter died of hunger as ration is not being provided by anyone and used to get food from the school she was studying but due to lockdown she was not getting food these days, said Bhuiyan. He was getting food at the brick kiln, but his wages were being held until the end of the season and hence was unable to send any money to his home, he added.
Local PDS dealer, Ishwari Prasad Gupta, claimed that there was no provision to distribute rice to the households without ration card, unless they have applied online for the same. According to Prasad, he has received a list of 7 such households who are being provided 10 kg of rice per month.
“I have been provided a list of 64 other households in Hesatu and Naihara having no ration cards, which has been sent to the BDO, but so far no provision has been made for them,” PDS dealer was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, a probe has been ordered by the Deputy Commissioner to get into the details of the matter.
“I have asked the SDO to investigate the matter thoroughly and submit a report in this regard. It would not be proper to comment on the matter before the report comes to me,” said Latehar DC Zeeshan Qamar.
Noted social economist Jean Dreze, however, attributed this incident to the failure of both Central and State Governments. “The tragedy is a logical outcome of the central and State Government’s failure to extend food assistance to households without a ration card,” said the social economist.