A 13- year-old boy of Sundargarh district, who has been struggling along with his mother and sister for survival, is inspiration for other children as he has been collecting plastic, polythene and glass bottles from garbage for livelihood of his family and is also going to school regularly to pursue his studies.
Since the plastic and polythene were banned from October 2, their survival is now in question and this poor family is also yet to get any assistance from Government.
Sanjay Bag (13) resides with his mother Suryakanti and sister Sanju at Basanti Colony in Kutra.
When Sanjay was 9 years old, his mother Suryakanti had brought Sanjay and his sister Sanju from Sundargarh to Kutra. When they were residing at Sundargarh and were struggling for survival with extreme poverty, Sanjay’s father had gone somewhere and had not returned.
Sanjay drags a trolley to garbage dumping area at road side in Kutra every day morning and his mother Suryakanti accompanies him. Both son and mother search plastic bottles, polythene and glass bottles and after collecting the items, they sell them.
With a meager income, they run their family. Sanjay has lot of interest towards studies. After few hours of work in morning, he goes to the Nodal School at Kutra. He studies in Class 8th.
Sanjay studies at school from 10 am to 4 pm and after reaching home, he again goes with the trolley to collect the waste materials.
“Since we are poor, I am working.” said Sanjay “I want to study more and if I will do well in studies, our sorrows will not be there,” Sanjay asserted.
“I have no idea about this poor boy and his mother and sister,” said Kutra BDO Manas Ranjan Ray, adding , “We will try to give all sorts of assistance to the poor family from Government at the earliest.”