A bubbly workaholic Phulkumari looses
everything to fluorosis in a span of mere four years.
The whole surrounding became electric and cheerful
when Sukanti, came to Karlakote village in 2006, as a bride to Suresh Patel.
She was beautiful and mingled with all
in her new village with respect and affection. “Soon after my marriage I not
only took up the role of managing her family, comprising myself and my husband,
but also helped with labour in our
households farming activity, and earned additional income through collection
of kendu leaf and mahul, and also
earning wage employment during agriculture season.
 |
| Bubbly & beautiful Phulkumari after marriage |
Now,
in 2016, the only activities that Phulkamari does is the basic necessity to
attend to call of nature, take bath, sit, sleep and eat to sustain. “Even doing
these basic activities for myself is an enourmous pain for me,” says
Phulkumari. She is not able to stand upright and makes painful few small
strides when she is forced to walk.
“I was very fine till up to year 2008. But, by 2010,
when I was barely 22 years old, I was crippled. My whole world turned upside
down,” recollects Phulkumari. “I lost capacity to earn and I lost capacity to
even do our own household work,” adds she. Now her husband does part of what
Phulkumari was doing so effectively, including cooking, cleaning the house, do
other chores of the house as well as earn livelihoods for both of the two.
With just one acre of land, the family of Suresh and
Phulkumari was never very well off. Even with such meager income Suresh and
Phulkumari had travelled to Sambalpur, 250 kilometers away, to seek treatment
and redress. That is a missionary hospital that provides treatment at low and
subsidized cost to poor people. “The doctor of that hospital gave me medicine
and assured us that it will get alright. We do not know what he diagnosed. It
didn’t heal. The problem only grew bigger,” recalls Phulkumari. “In just two
years I became fully defunct,physically and we became mentally and economically
drained,” adds a dejected looking Phulkumari.
 |
| A crippled Phulkumari now |
“Our land provides us rice for a year only. For income
we have to do wage earning. Earlier we both were going for wage earning, now
only I go after doing all the household chores,” says Suresh. Phulkumari was
earning big. ‘We never count how much we earn, but what Phulkumari was earning
was quite big for our family. We have totally lost that income. We do not have money to take her to bigger
hospitals in large cities,” says tired but still hopeful Suresh.
Phulkumari is not alone in her village Karlakot in
Nuapada district of Odisha. “Many others have become crippled. People of an NGO
tell us that it is fluorosis disease caused by contaminated water of the
village tube well. We now know that it is because of the bad quality of water
of the tube wells that we were trusting as clean and safe water”, says
Phulkumri. Government has already identified this village as fluoride affected.
“Few years ago some government people asked villagers to not use water of the
tubewells. A year later government started supplying water from the Sunder
river that flows nearby. But the pipe water network fails often and villagers
keep drinking high fluoride contaminated water,” Suresh. “A team from
Bhubaneswar had visited once. But, no doctor team has ever visited us,”
complains Phulkumari.
Further adding salt to the injury is the severe
feeling of getting excluded even by the government. “We have made numerous
request to provide us a fluorosis of disability certificate and provide us pension.
But our request have fallen on deaf ears,” alleges Suresh.
The family is
devastated. The only saving grace for them is support from the neighbours and
relatives. Suresh’s house which was brimming with energy on his marriage day in
2006, wears a deserted look now. And Phulkumari, the beautiful bride with truck
loads of dreams on that lovely marriage day, is has lost almost everything,
including the hope to become a mother.
No comments:
Post a Comment