For the “widows” of six-odd hamlets that comprise the Deoli-Bramhagram Panchayat, some seven km from Guptkashi in rain-ravaged Uttarakhand, Sulabh International has chipped in to lend a helping hand to those in distress by adopting these villages.
“Whatever is possible to mitigate the sufferings of these hapless women, Sulabh will try its best. We have always helped people in distress, and in this instance of Himalayan Tsunami, our efforts will match the magnitude of the devastation,” said Sulabh founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak who recently adopted all the widows of Vrindavan and Varanasi and recently set up “Sulabh Hope Foundation” to serve the Widows in India.
These women are residents of Shirwani and Pitora, part of the 30-odd houses that comprise the “Harijan Basti” of the Deoli-Bramhagram gram sabha. In villages of Deoli and Bramhagram, home to pundits who perform pujas around Kedarnath shrine or run hotels, there are at least 20-odd people missing. At Pitora, also part of same gram panchayat, five men are missing.
The internationally acclaimed NGO has decided to pay Rs 2,000 per month to each of the 57 widows. “We cannot bring cheer to such widows but at least give them a source to run their families,” Dr Pathak said, adding that the initial amount will be paid for next five years.
It is more than a fortnight after the natural calamity struck the hill state that many villages still remain cut off by road. While many have perished, their number yet unknown, there is no trace of at least 57 men from the six hamlets, as a result of which the area is fast getting the tag of a “village of widows”.
For about six months of the year, the men folk from Deoli-Bramhagram panchayat area go to Kedarnath, where they work as mule operators, and ferrying pilgrims from Gaurikund. Many of them have not returned home.
Dhamita, a mother of two children, is expecting her third child. Since the flash-floods, she has been trying to contact her husband, Sunil, 24, on his cell phone. But she hasn’’t had any luck so far. Her neighbour, Vinita, 23, who married just a year ago, has stopped eating as she waits for news of her husband, Mahesh, 28. Her mother-in-law, Bichna Devi, 45, is busy trying to contact her husband, Devdas, 50, also missing since June 16.