Khurshi struggles hard to survive
By afsana at 5 July, 2009, 9:06 am
Article By Afsana Rashid Srinagar-India, July 3
Caught up in vicious circle of poverty, illiteracy and helplessness, it is a story of widow who many a times doesn’t get bare necessities of life and has a heart rendering tale.
Living in old Srinagar city [Fateh Kadal], Khurshi doesn’t have any source of steady income. She doesn’t either receive any proper assistance from any quarter of society.
With tears rolling down her cheeks Khurshi says, “Kaense cha itkan posan ratne siet khushi milan (who feels happy in accepting charity).”
She says that she often goes hungry. “I usually take a cup of tea and take meal once a day. At times, water is the only thing available.”
In her late 80’s Khurshi says that since her husband’s death, twelve years ago, life has been “cruel” for her and she has been struggling hard to sustain herself.
She while recalling, says that many years ago, she and her husband, Habibullah Mata Hanji, lived in a small boat at Fateh Kadal ghat (Narayan Das ghat) that capsized and the couple lost everything.
They decided to live in a rented accommodation till one day Habibullah passed away, leaving his wife to struggle hard to survive.
“When my husband died, the house owner forced me out as I had no source to pay house rent,” says Khurshi.
Although Khurshi was blessed with three sons and a daughter but all of them died when they were young. “I have no issue or near relatives. I don’t even have any source of livelihood. Now I have grown too old to work,” she says.
Her husband had tried hard for a plot of land but had failed. The papers, she says, are still pending in the office at Land Revenue department, Bemina. “I appealed to government, in my application, to provide me a room till I am alive,” she says, “but the plea fell on deaf ears.”
Pleased by the fact that some body has come to see the suffering and agony she was going through, Khurshi says, “Ye chapena akhbaar manz? Kaise lag na pata be kitkan chaes rouzan” (I hope it would get published so that some body would take note of it).
She says that she was living in a rented room and used to pay Rs. 300 as house rent. She managed the amount from people’s contributions. “Few months back the house owner asked me to vacate as I couldn’t pay amount in due time. She demanded Rs. 1000 as rent, which I couldn’t afford.”
She says that she has no financial source to pay house-rent. “I often thought of committing suicide.”
Khurshi has even visited Wakaf Board “but they didn’t offer any valuable assistance. Once they simply gave me few coins, which was disheartening. How could that help me,” she says.
She adds that if she dies, no one will come to now about her death. “Concerned officials at local police station have assured me that after my death, they will burry me since there is no one to perform my last rites,” she says.
Khurshi suffers from certain health problem and says that she has been prescribed some injections costing Rs. 500 each.
Khurshi says that she approached Social Welfare Department for widow fund but authorities demanded death certificate of her husband. “Where from shall I get that? It has been a long time now,” she says.
Even the concerned officials in the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir office say that they can’t help the old lady “as she is already getting Rs. 300 from the Social Welfare Department.”
Under such circumstances, the lady asks if society and government has no responsibility towards her.
ENDS
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