SHILLONG: Rabina Khatun’s worry is insignificant at a time when the state is facing the daunting task of keeping the pandemic at bay and this triviality of her problem is heightened by the penury and squalor amid which she lives with her husband and three daughters.
Khatun’s family is among the 10 households, originally from Bihar, living on a downhill patch in Madanrting’s Block C. The rows of matchbox rooms begin and end as abruptly as the settlement is lost in obscurity behind multi-storeyed buildings along the main road.
In one of the wooden rooms, Khatun’s husband Iasin Mia, a daily-wage earner, was writhing in pain. About two weeks ago, his femur was dislocated when he slipped while walking. “This Wednesday will be the 15th day of the accident. He is in terrible pain and the leg has swollen. But getting medical care is difficult in this time,” said Khatun as she narrated the ordeal of the family.
Iasin is bed-ridden. The family had visited several hospitals but every time came back with less hope of getting the right treatment. According to Khatun, the patient was first taken to Shillong Civil Hospital where he was asked to come back after the lockdown. NEIGRIHMS informed the family that it has run out of equipment necessary for treating the dislocation.
“He needs surgery but none of the hospitals would admit him. We went to Woodland too but the expenses are beyond our capability. So he is surviving on painkillers,” said Khatun.
Iasin, who is in his mid-fifties, was taking a nap when the reporters visited the family. The decrepit room with a small window-like structure for ventilation bore in its appearance the burden of the family’s innumerable problems, besides the current medical emergency.
He later informed that Woodland Hospital asked for Rs 90,000. Going back to their village in Bihar’s Siwan district would cost the family Rs 40,000, almost their entire savings.
“So we want to go back to Bihar. At least, we know people there who can help us get treatment. We have been trying to book a vehicle and get permission from the deputy commissioner’s office but there too, we are facing hurdles,” Khatun said.
According to Khatun, the DC office asked them to apply for travel permission online and “did not allow me to enter”. Later, she found out that only two persons would be allowed to travel. “How can I leave my daughters alone here,” the mother was exasperated.
Iasin went to a traditional healer in Smit who massaged with herbal oil and wrapped herbs with bandage around his leg. “It is a trouble for my wife and daughters – first, I cannot get up from bed and second, there will be no income for some time now,” the bread-earner of the family lamented.
Khatun is holding on to the last hope of travel permission for the entire family. Her daughters’ education will be jeopardised but that is “a small price” for safety because all solutions to the family’s woes are in the native place.
