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16 December 2011

Inflicted family deprived of government allowances

KATHMANDU, DEC 15 -
Shanti Maharjan of Lamapati in Kupandole, Lalitpur, is bed-ridden. The 67-year-old had a misfortune five years ago when she fell on the ground and got her legs fractured.

Her hope that she would get support at this crucial stage of her life is shattered as her two sons and a daughter-in-law—Anil Kumar, Ajaya and Buddhi Kumari—are disabled too.

Shanti said that Anil and Ajaya had ceased to walk after they fell on the ground and got their legs fractured as two-year-olds while Buddhi Kumari, wife of Ajaya, is a hunchback.

Shanti, who has two steel plates fitted to her right leg, said she visited various hospitals in Kathmandu for treatment, but to no avail. She said she had spent around Rs 200,000 seeking medical care.

Dr Balkrishna Acharya involved in her treatment said that three of them except Buddhi Kumari were suffering from Osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic bone disorder caused due to the deficiency of Type-I collagen, which cannot be cured. A person with the disease may have his or her bone fractured even when he or she meets with a minor accident. Dr Acharya suggested that one take care of himself or herself to avoid such a misfortune.

Buddhi Kumari said that she consulted a doctor some 10 years ago. After the doctor told her that an operation on her back risked her life and she could be much weaker as a result, she gave up the idea of getting treatment.

“It is sad for a family to have its breadwinner disabled,” Shanti said, of her sons who could not even move their legs until five years ago. “I carried them to school or elsewhere on my back when I could barely walk,” she recalls. Her husband, who had no disability, died 18 years ago, leaving the family helpless.

The six-member family’s, which includes one able woman, sole source of income is a CD shop, which does not earn enough for its upkeep. Shanti said she borrowed Rs 600,000 to start the shop some six years ago. The loan is yet to be repaid completely.

“We are facing difficulties in paying the loan and covering household expenses,” she said, adding that her younger son, who is in Saudi Arabia, is helping her out.

Buddhi Kumari said that one member is needed to take care of the old woman all the time. Anil and Ajaya run the shop while Anil’s wife, Manju, works in the house.

The government provides allowances to inflicted people like the four. However, none of them gets it at present and Shanti is deprived of her identity certificate. Shanti said they did not get the allowance except Rs 2,000 some three years ago for her two sons.

She has not got her identity card as she cannot go to the office concerned. Prabin Nyachho, the secretary for Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City Ward No 10, which distributes allowance to the disabled in its area, said they might not have renewed their identity cards and that no allowance had been received from the government in the name of Anil and Ajay.

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