Husband Died, She is Crippled, Two Daughters Clueless

Fluorosis keeps spreading and helpless people of Nuapada continue succumbing to dreaded misery

The 300 rupees of ‘widow pension’ is the only income for the 38 years old Prema Behera and her two daughters of Karlakot village in Nuapada distict. “My husband became crippled in a young age and later died. I have also become fully crippled since about four years,” saya Prema. Apart from the small house in ramshackle state, they have only 0.7 acres of land property. “We cannot cultivate. Our uncle, brother of our father Fakira, cultivates the land and provides us paddy,” says Jamuma, elder adolescent daughter of Prema. 

Prema looks healthy, but can't do anything

When Prema came to Karlakot village after her marriage in 1996, she was a pillar of the family. “Apart from household chores, I was regularly going to forest to collect firewood, going for wage labour and collecting minor forest harvests to augment her familly’s income,” recollects Prema. But good times ended quite soon for them. “Within a span of just three years my husband started feeling pain in body, became crippled and then died,” says Prema.  Soon after, Prema started showing the same symptoms as her husband. “Brother of my husband has helped us a lot. He took me to the biggest hospital of the region in Burla, about 300 kilometers away. When the problems did not heal we went to Visakhapatnam city in Andhra Pradesh state for treatment. There, doctor diagnosed the disease as ‘fluorosis’,” informs Prema. The doctor informed them that it is because of the water they drink. Since 2012, Prema has lost capacity to walk and is mostly confined to bed. The two adolescent daughters not only take care of her but also look after the household.

Prema gets a ‘widow pension’ of 300 rupees a month. Even though she has been diagnosed with severe skeletal fluorosis and is completely crippled she is yet to get pension for physically handicapped person or any other special pension like the pension of 1,500 rupees per month provided by Andhra Pradesh government for fluorosis affected people.

The two very young daughters of Prema are deeply pained by the sufferings of their mother. They have also seen their father suffer and die. They also see many others in their village with similar woes. “We know that water is causing that problem. But we are unable to do anything. The pipe water supply project often gets defunct. Many families are purchasing water from a neighboring which has RO filter or have purchased a filter themselves. We do not have money to do that,” says Tulasi, the younger daughter of Prema.

The past decade has been very cruel to this family and the future does not look bright either. Various development programmes and social security measures has failed to reach the most affected people, especially the poor.

Fluorosis Mauls Flowery Dreams of Phulkumari

A bubbly workaholic Phulkumari looses everything to fluorosis in a span of mere four years.

The whole surrounding became electric and cheerful when Sukanti, came to Karlakote village in 2006, as a bride to Suresh Patel. She was beautiful and mingled with  all in her new village with respect and affection. “Soon after my marriage I not only took up the role of managing her family, comprising myself and my husband, but also helped  with labour in our households farming activity, and earned additional income through collection of  kendu leaf and mahul, and also earning wage employment during agriculture season. 

Bubbly & beautiful Phulkumari after marriage

Now, in 2016, the only activities that Phulkamari does is the basic necessity to attend to call of nature, take bath, sit, sleep and eat to sustain. “Even doing these basic activities for myself is an enourmous pain for me,” says Phulkumari. She is not able to stand upright and makes painful few small strides when she is forced to walk.

“I was very fine till up to year 2008. But, by 2010, when I was barely 22 years old, I was crippled. My whole world turned upside down,” recollects Phulkumari. “I lost capacity to earn and I lost capacity to even do our own household work,” adds she. Now her husband does part of what Phulkumari was doing so effectively, including cooking, cleaning the house, do other chores of the house as well as earn livelihoods for both of the two. 

With just one acre of land, the family of Suresh and Phulkumari was never very well off. Even with such meager income Suresh and Phulkumari had travelled to Sambalpur, 250 kilometers away, to seek treatment and redress. That is a missionary hospital that provides treatment at low and subsidized cost to poor people. “The doctor of that hospital gave me medicine and assured us that it will get alright. We do not know what he diagnosed. It didn’t heal. The problem only grew bigger,” recalls Phulkumari. “In just two years I became fully defunct,physically and we became mentally and economically drained,” adds a dejected looking Phulkumari.

A crippled Phulkumari now

“Our land provides us rice for a year only. For income we have to do wage earning. Earlier we both were going for wage earning, now only I go after doing all the household chores,” says Suresh. Phulkumari was earning big. ‘We never count how much we earn, but what Phulkumari was earning was quite big for our family. We have totally lost that income.  We do not have money to take her to bigger hospitals in large cities,” says tired but still hopeful Suresh. 

Phulkumari is not alone in her village Karlakot in Nuapada district of Odisha. “Many others have become crippled. People of an NGO tell us that it is fluorosis disease caused by contaminated water of the village tube well. We now know that it is because of the bad quality of water of the tube wells that we were trusting as clean and safe water”, says Phulkumri. Government has already identified this village as fluoride affected. “Few years ago some government people asked villagers to not use water of the tubewells. A year later government started supplying water from the Sunder river that flows nearby. But the pipe water network fails often and villagers keep drinking high fluoride contaminated water,” Suresh. “A team from Bhubaneswar had visited once. But, no doctor team has ever visited us,” complains Phulkumari.

Further adding salt to the injury is the severe feeling of getting excluded even by the government. “We have made numerous request to provide us a fluorosis of disability certificate and provide us pension. But our request have fallen on deaf ears,” alleges Suresh. 

The family is devastated. The only saving grace for them is support from the neighbours and relatives. Suresh’s house which was brimming with energy on his marriage day in 2006, wears a deserted look now. And Phulkumari, the beautiful bride with truck loads of dreams on that lovely marriage day, is has lost almost everything, including the hope to become a mother.