Saint Teresa of Calcutta has long association with many activities in Odisha. She commanded the respect and admiration of a major section of the world for her service for the poorest of the poor. This writer has been a witness to her meticulous discussions with his mother about the running of the Dayashram at Cuttack. The writer had the opportunity of interacting with Saint (then Mother) Teresa on several occasions, and each was a unique one.
It is time we held a mirror and looked at our own faces when the world remembers Saint Teresa for having served the poorest and for providing some solace to the marginal and neglected sections of the society. There has been a steady decline of the social fabric. The pace of decline has been very fast. While waxing eloquent about the flagship governmental programmes, the ground reality goes unnoticed and unexplained. We in Odisha are acquiring the notoriety of being a brutal, vulgar and insensitive society. last week, we had the ghastly sights of Dana Majhi carrying the dead body of his wife on his shoulders for more than 10 km as he received no form of assistance, even on an occasion such as death. Bones were cracked up in a brutal manner to fit in a dead body into a bag, and this was tolerated in Baleswar. Before the week has ended, on September 2, an ambulance driver forced a couple to get down from a vehicle after their seven-year-old daughter died while being transported to the hospital. The request of the couple to the driver to drop them at their village in Malkangiri district fell on deaf ears. The parents finally had to carry the deceased daughter for some kilometers. Fortunately, amongst the equally poor lot in the nearby areas, the spirit of Saint Teresa was alive. Some local persons approached a section of the media and the matter reached some responsive quarters of administration and some makeshift arrangement was made to take the couple with the dead body of their daughter to their village.
Another disturbing report reveals the state of affairs in areas lying next door to the so-called industrial hub of Angul. Banarpal is an important junction of this area. A news report depicts the plight of a woman patient being carried in a precarious condition by a bullock cart with borrowed bullocks by the elderly husband. Worse still, there was no doctor at the medical centre to which the patient was taken and the bullock cart carried the patient in a precarious state to a medicine shop in Bichitra Mahidharpur. From the medicine shop, the bullock cart took back the patient to her home. More than 14 km was covered by this cruel journey.
The scenario is not limited to patient-care alone. There have been reports from Balangir district of alleged starvation deaths. Heart-rendering reports have also emanated from Ullunda block in Balangir district in and around Gudipalli village. An old woman has been ailing uncared for and depending on the mercy of some kind neighbours. On account of her illness, for two months or so she has not visited her panchayat office for getting the most-publicised quota of rice. A request through a neighbour for issue of the rice was turned down. The youth power of that village and adjoining areas reacted to this and carried the elderly lady on a cot to the panchayat office so that she could get her quota of rice.
Stories of destitution and deprivation are also reported not merely from Kalahandi and Kashipur (as was the case of last week), Boudh district is also not left behind. About a kilometer away from the panchayat office, lived an elderly couple. They have none else but the neighbours and the surrounding community to look after them. They live in a thatched hut and have no landed property. None of the professed programmes appear to be reaching them, and the 87-year-old woman has to go into forest for procuring a sub-human subsistence.
How superficial we are in paying our homage to Saint Teresa especially on her canonisation! We have hit the headlines again for the wrong reasons in so far as our attitude towards women is concerned. This paper has reported that about 1,957 cases of criminal assault on women with intention to disrobe and disturb the modesty were reported in Odisha in 2015. We are at the top bracket of this unusual honour. Other States likes Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Utter Pradesh are far behind us. The crime rate against women has been steadily on the increase, again disclosing the depravity and value negation in our social framework. We have climbed up to the fourth highest in the country in our attempt to disrobe women. These incidents are samples of the general malady. It is a pity that these unpleasant truths stare at all of us when we are paying lip service to Saint Teresa.
Odisha was identified for a long time with political instability, and it is generally believed that a prolonged stable government would cause the necessary radical changes. Nothing at the grassroots level has really changed. A few have enriched themselves leaving the poor to suffer further. This has had its distorting impact on the youths who are already in disarray. The experiences of the youths in the first rub with state power are not pleasant or reassuring. This youth power must necessarily reorient itself and amputate the cancer of poverty from the very village level. let’s remind ourselves that the heart of India lives in the villages, and in causing regeneration and development from the bottom, a concerted movement is a basic necessity. The youths must take the lead and the honest ones amongst the elders must bless them in this venture. No section of our society can be left out from this common action. Surely, this concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)