Documenting Lives

“Which party are you from, Sahaab…?” was the response we got when we asked for their verification IDs. As clichéd as it sounds, that’s the plight of the underprivileged people who are deprived of  basic amenities and attention living their lives in a vast ocean of misery.  Little Rohan hasn’t got the chance to hold a pencil yet, because he has come to believe that helping his family in earning some money is more significant than reading some scripts, while a tender Devaki has an uncanny sense of pride that she won’t be a burden to her family anymore as she is going to get married before her 16^th birthday.

In the months of November-December 2018, members of AASRA visited 6 leprosy colonies based in the slums of Rourkela and documented the grievances of differently-abled people residing in these areas. Shri Sannyas Behera (OAS) had requested the members of AASRA to step up to which the members promptly acted upon. The places covered during this duration were Bengali Basti, Durgapur, Deogaon, Sector-6 leprosy colony, OSAP leprosy colony and Sec-21 leprosy colony, each of which had a variety of its region-specific problems along with their general problems.

General problems common to these areas include the unavailability of potable water sources, poor sanitation facilities and improper drainage system due to insufficient funding as promised by the government schemes. Poor construction of the houses makes them susceptible to harsh weather and unhygienic living conditions make their lives miserable. There will be no points given to guess the standard of education the children of these areas can access, which subsequently plays a major role to give rise to one of the biggest problems in India- Unemployment. Most of the adults resort to begging. Due to improper education the youths are also forced to find out petty seasonal jobs and earn very low wages. 

People from the neighboring states who migrate into these areas don’t hold proper residential proofs. This ultimately denies them any rights to hold ration cards and other types of necessary id proofs which piles up to their despondency. An inevitable out-turn is that the people of these areas are not aware about the various schemes and government policies which can increase their welfare. Lack of awareness also leads to age old social norms and taboos such as child marriage to be prevalent in such societies.

After the documentations were properly compiled, the reports were duly mailed to Sannyas Kumar Behera Sir, who works in association with the DSSO, Sundargarh district to uplift the conditions of the leprosy colonies. The most serious problems were recorded in a separate report so that the major troubles could be bought into limelight of the concerned authorities. As of July 2019, the application to sanction for building necessary infrastructures has been forwarded to the Rourkela Municipality by the DSSO. This can be considered as a stepping stone for further development and rehabilitation of these societies.

The list of problems and plight of the people will seem endless if the troubles in each household has to be described. But despite all the difficulties faced these people have learnt to live with a smile on their face.

                                                                           -by Amlan Ranjan Sahoo