From the same impoverished Dana Majhi’s district Kalahandi, another heart-rending incident has hogged the headline. Poverty-stricken girls dismantled roof of their house to fetch wood for their mother's funeral fire after all options were closed for them. Kanak Satpathy (75) died after prolonged illness on September 23 night.
Her daughters pleaded with the villagers to help them cremate their mother, but no one came forward. The helpless daughters waited for hours near a cot where the body was lying and then suddenly collected their courage and prepared to walk to the cremation ground by taking the body. They dismantled their house and brought out the wood to use them to set fire to the body.
Sociopolitical leader and Smt Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust (SNSMT) chairman Suparno Satpathy expressed his grief via a tweet. "The Kanak Satpathy case from Kalahandi will remain a blot for all times to come. Shame on all of us in Odisha and more so, on our rulers," he tweeted. He also spoke to district Collector Dr Brundha D regarding the tragic incident and emphasised that the daughters of late Satpathy be provided with all possible support from the district administration.