It was the State’s first Women’s Empowerment Day celebration on Monday but a large number of women present on the occasion for the programme at Khelgaon in Ranchi were on empty stomach . More than 100 women had to spend the day at the programme without food, while around 70 women received food packets that contained stale eatables, said women present there.
Interestingly, these women included health workers like nurses, sahiyas, anganwadi sevikas and mukhiyas of various districts. “We reported here by 11 am and were supposed to get our food packets by 12 noon. But, no one responded to our requests on distributing the food packets,” said one among the 37 medical staffs of Ranchi Sadar Hospital including women doctors and at 4:15 pm when the programme concluded.
Similarly, 10 women of Hazaribag district said, “We did not get food. May be it was our bad luck.” On the other side, 60 women representatives of Koderma district said they reached the stadium on time after travelling a long distance from their place in the morning but were offered stale food packets. “We all had to starve because of the stale and stinking sabzi (vegetable). Somehow, we ate the puris. Now, we will be able to have a proper meal after few hours when we reach our district,” Koderma’s supervisor Mira Kumari said.
Notably, the programme was scheduled to start by 11: 30 am but it was delayed due to cabinet meeting. It commenced after 2pm. This reporter found dozens of food packets thrown around the stadium. Women present there said that the food was stale and so many of them refused to eat.
However, when lady officers in-charge of food were approached they denied the fact. “We had given fresh food packets to all the women. It is impossible to find rotten food products. The scorching heat cannot spoil the food,” said an official of the social welfare department.
Apart from these health workers, there were women labourers who handed a list of demands to the Chief Minister Hemant Soren in between the celebrations.
Asked about the reason, three labourers said the 1,400 labourers who had worked from July 1, 2010 to January 15, 2012 in the stadium for the 34th National Games, 2011 are yet to receive their wages. “When we protested for our demands in January 2012, 300 labourers like me were removed from the group. We had submitted a similar request letter to former CM Arjun Munda as well but no action was taken,” said Savitri Devi.