IS IT THE END OF PHANAS PUNJI’S POVERTY?

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IS IT THE END OF PHANAS PUNJI’S POVERTY?

Saturday, 17 January 2015 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Chandigarh
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Remember Phanas Punji? Now, her wait for three long decades for a good dwelling house finally ended on January 14 when she was allotted the work order for construction of a house under the Biju Pacca Ghar scheme by the Khariar BDO. “I will not ask for any other support if the house is constructed” said a gleaming Phanas.
When a media team of the District Press Club of Nuapada visited Phanas on January 12 and wanted to take some photographs, she became angry. “Don’t take my photo. What have you done for me? I am that Phanas Punji who told about my poverty to Rajiv Gandhi. Years passed; Government changed, but my situation has remained the same as it was during the visit of Rajiv Gandhi to my home. (Mui Jen Garib ke se Garib),” lamented an aggrieved Phanas.
“Phanas” became the epitome of poverty of the undivided Kalahandi district in the 1980s. When she confessed that she had sold her fourteen-year-old sister-in-law Banita to a blind man for a mere Rs 40 to fend her three small children, it shocked the world. This incident attracted scores of reporters to the district, which forced the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to visit her house in August 1985.
Phanas narrated her sorrow to Rajiv. Returning from Kalahandi, Rajiv Gandhi announced a number of schemes like Long-Term Action Plan for Kalahandi. It also brought a large development funds for NGOs. But what Phanas got in this whole process was “only Rs 7,000 after two years of Rajiv’s visit, to construct a Kuchha house,” says Phanas.
The children of Phanas who were between four to eight years of age at that time do not remember properly what the promises the officials and the politicians made. However, they clearly have the memory of the hardship their mother and they faced to get two square meals a day. “I started working as a labourer in the nearby rice mill, and my two sisters worked as farm labourers to support my mother,” says Jagabandhu, who is 38 years old now and is married with two children. Phanas now works as the cook at the village Anganwadi Centre and gets Rs 1,000 per month. “This helps me fund the schooling of my granddaughter,” says Phanas.
Phanas had repeatedly approached the panchayat and the block offices for a house under the IAY. “None of them listen to my request; they said that I have been given a house. But you see what the condition of that house is,” said Phanas. The house constructed more than 25 years ago with the support of Rs 7,000 is damaged. Phanas and her family thus have made a small hut in the farmland to dwell in.
Khariar BDO NC Naik has assured Phanas of land development works under the MGNREGS. “We will try our best to support her to bring a change in her livelihood,” he said. Phanas and her family members are now happy. “I will not complain to anyone of my poverty again,” says she.

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