PUDUKKOTTAI: Year after Gaja removed their hut’s roof, the family with six hearing and speech impaired siblings in Pudukkottai town is yet to find bearings. They still live under the damaged roof covered with tarpaulins donated by volunteers.
Except for Dhanalakshmi and her parents, who are the only ones able to speak and hear in the family, the remaining six siblings are disabled. At the night when Gaja made landfall, none of these six siblings took note of the roaring gale, well until their thatched roof was damaged and rains poured inside. All her siblings are hearing and speech impaired.
Dhanalakshmi (29) is unmarried and takes care of her family by working as a domestic help at a few households closeby. “We were already barely getting by. Only I and sometimes my frail mother went to work. After Gaja, the burden further increased. We had the house to repair and some damaged possessions to be replaced,” she said. She had applied for a sweeper post at the Pudukkottai prison, and was awaiting results. “If I get the work then we may have some relief,” she said. In addition to being disabled, the siblings and even Dhanalakshmi’s parents had health ailments to be tended to.
Her father Raju (63), is disabled after a backbone issue and he can’t walk. Her mother Vasantha (60) in addition to having diabetes said she could not go to work any more as she fainted often.
“In addition to helping them through the day, given their challenges, they also require medical attention. The medical and pharmacy bills alone take a toll. Of my meager earnings, big chunks go towards this. Five of my siblings are getting monthly-aid for disabled from the government and that money goes dry on their medications itself,” said Dhanalakshmi, who alone shoulders the whole family.
Recalling the day of the cyclone, her mother Vasantha said, “It was a struggle get the six of them out of the house. Winds were strong, people around in other huts were scrambling for steadier shelters. But they heard nothing. Dhanalakshmi and I were already occupied with pulling my husband out of the hut. We slapped to rouse them from sleep. It was a frightful night.”
“We had help from volunteers. Water bottles, tarpaulin, biscuits came in from volunteers. Some even gave us money,” they had mostly spent it on rebuilding their roof and buying necessities and medicines.
“If the government specially considers our plight and helps us financially, we would come out of this situation. Also, if I get a steady work it will provide us some security and way to move forward,” said the sole bread winner of the family Dhanalakshmi.
Earlier, four of them have been receiving their monthly aid from the government. Dhanalakshmi was taking efforts then to get the monthly aid for one more sibling. Two months before, that person has also started getting the pension. The family had received `8,000 as the cyclone relief from the government.