Pulled from the Edge (Disability)

Somar Bhuian (42) is a complete blind person by birth and belongs to such a landless and deprived Bhuian caste that is still discarded by other castes in Asdhir village of Katkamsandi block, Hazaribag. His wife Urmila Devi too is a partial blind woman, the mother of their 4 children.

NBJK’s field staff Neelam Sharma has visited the family in July 2010 and found that all they were dependent upon Chakauda grass for their food as no cereal was available with them. This acute poverty has already snatched a child from Somar and his wife. Their dilapidated house, ragged clothing and 6 human beings without proper food explained everything about Somar with his family.
Neelam was astonished to know that earlier Somar was a beneficiary of the pension under social security scheme by Jharkhand government. But this aid has been suspended in the meantime as Somar was declared dead on the pages of government record without any enquiry at all.

Neelam contacted Vaibhav Kumar, the concerned BDO and informed him about the blunder which forced not only a person, rather a full family to starve and to live in such a miserable condition. This intervention took about 2-3 months but Somar was reinserted in the list and his pension became regular. Before this, he was allocated 35 kg grains immediately from Disaster Relief Fund of the block.

The villagers were mobilized and a general meeting was called to look into the matter. They decided to help Somar and family. The dealer of PDS outlet was instructed by the BDO to provide 35 kg rice every month to Somar. With due advocacy and processing, also his wife urmila could get a disability certificate and receives monthly pension.

Now-a-days Somar and urmila get monthly pension and rationed grain. Their elder son goes to school. Also people offer some easy but paid works to Somar or his wife. They attend village meetings and enjoy a better social milieu. Somar can run a tiny shop of daily snacks like biscuit, papad, germinated gram etc if facilitated properly as Neelam suggests.