Moving tales of Covid victims in Nuapada Sunday, 09 May 2021 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA
Moving tales of Covid victims in Nuapada
Ashok Sunani of Ulbha village of Komna block in Nuapada district is yet to resume his earning as a wage worker although he has completed the quarantine period after being affected by corona two and a half weeks ago.
"I am feeling breathless if I do physical labour and even after walking a little distance," says Ashok, whose father Mangal Singh died of Covid on April 26, two days after being relieved from the Covid Hospital at Nuapada.
"The hospital staffs had advised us to shift my father to a hospital with improved facilities, but we could not," adds Ashok, who is the sole bread earner of the family of five, his wife, mother and two children.
Ashok's wife and mother had also been suffering from Covid and in home quarantine. The family was in distress due to lack of food until the Mukta Bichar Manch (MBM), a local forum of intellectuals, came forward to extend food support.Biranchi Rana of Mahulmunda village of Khariar block, who died of Covid on May 2, was a private vehicle driver. His wife, who was also admitted to the Covid Hospital and had returned home two days before Biranchi's death, is gradually recovering.
But she feels helpless, wondering how to manage the family with her three children, two of whom are differently-abled. Mamata (12) is blind and Barsha (5) has neurological problems unable to walk and talk. Three children of Biranchi's widow sister are also staying with the family.
"The loss cannot be compensated, but a helping hand can bring some solace to such families," said Shashikant Khamari, an active member of the MBM which provided food items like dal, rice, oil to the widow. "We in Mukta Bichar Manch try to do whatever is possible by generating funds from amongst us.
We did so in the first wave of the pandemic and are trying this time round too," adds Shrikant Chatterjee, who, after his retirement from the IRS, initiated the MBM with an objective to create a space for the citizens to discuss and deliberate on public issues.
About one hundred people of Nuapada district have already lost their lives to Covid since April 1, 2021 and about 75% of the deceased were between 25 to 60 years of age. "As most of the deceased were earning members of their families, there is a need to identify poor families amongst them for immediate assistance," says Tapan Dash, a journalist.
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