SONEPUR: Even as the Dana Majhi case that shook the collective conscience of an entire nation refuses to go away from public memory, a 62-year-old destitute woman was denied a dignified funeral in Sonepur district because she was once afflicted with leprosy.
Shunned in life, Jagyasini Bhoi, a native of Saharapali village in Ulunda block of Sonepur, was outcast even in her death. The morning after she died, the panchayat sent three persons who packed her body in a cloth, loaded it on a bicycle and buried it in a forest three kms from the village.
Though she had completely recovered from leprosy, the shackles of dogmatic belief and social taboos proved hard to break for Jagyasini. She was forced to lead a lonely and deprived life cut off from the society. Even after death, she was denied a respectful cremation.
Jagyasini was cured of the disease after undergoing multi drug therapy. She was medically relieved from treatment in 1994. A widow without any children, she came back to her village.
Scorned by the villagers for the disease in spite of cure, she stayed in a thatched house on the outskirts of the village and led the life on her own. She sustained with rice and Old Age Pension of Rs 300 provided by the gram panchayat. With such meagre sources, she either begged or went to bed without food on many days.
After leading the life of a social outcast, she breathed her last on Sunday night. But, none of the villagers came forward to cremate her body which was left in her so-called house for the whole night.
Finally, the panchayat sent three persons who wrapped the body in a cloth, put it on a bicycle and buried it in Gunjipali forest, 3 kms from the village. When contacted, Sonepur Collector Dasrathi Satpathy said they were ignorant about the unfortunate incident.
But he admitted that carrying the body on a bicycle was ‘inhuman and wrong’ and assured that steps would be initiated so that similar incidents do not recur.
The Collector said it was primarily the responsibility of the gram panchayat to provide all kinds of support to such destitute. But the members of the panchayat concerned failed to bring it to the notice of the district administration. However, the administration has instituted a probe into the incident and action will be initiated against the officials found guilty of dereliction of duty.
