Tribal widow Naimi rebuilds her life by claiming pension and housing support for herself and sponsorship allowance for two of her vulnerable children

Naimi Burh aged about 29 is a widow and belongs to the Scheduled Tribes (ST). She along with her four children – one daughter and three sons live in Loaram village of Nuagaon Block in Sundargarh district.

Naimi was leading a normal life till about four years ago, when life threw a bolt from the blue on her. Her husband Som was diagnosed with cancer. A year later Som passed away. To make things worse, her in-laws threw her out of their house, forcing her to live in their dingy cowshed and fend for herself and her children. Naimi started working as a daily wage labour on neighbourhood farms. But, she could never manage to earn enough to provide two square meals to her four children. Sometimes, days would pass by and she would have no work. Naimi did not have the ‘Below Poverty Line’ food subsidy card nor had she registered herself in the MGNREG Scheme that guarantees 100 days of waged work to rural households in India. Many a night, her children would go to bed without eating anything. Her frustration was getting on her nerves. This was when a person asked her to give one of her sons for 5000 rupees. Naimi decided to give away her youngest son so that she could buy some food for her three elder children.

This information reached the Village Development Committee. Ejren, a local woman leader trained by DISHA and some village leaders rushed to her with some minimum food, clothes, and medicine support. When they persuaded her, Naimi reluctantly confessed that she had to take such a painful decision because she was unable to feed her children four square meals. A kind-hearted person was interested to take in a son of hers; he would at least feed her son well and give him a proper schooling, she reasoned with the village leaders.

Ejren advised her and the Village Leaders to talk to the Sarpanch and ask him to enlist Naimi under the subsidized food scheme of PDS. Public Distribution System (PDS) is the largest food subsidy programme in India that provides rice or wheat to poor households at a very minimal price ranging between Rs 1 and Rs 3. Since Naimi’s name did not appear on the BPL list of the government, the Sarpanch included her name in the ‘People Left Out’ (PLO) Category. Naimi was also informed about the other welfare schemes of the government. The villagers approached the Block Development Officer and requested him to recommend her name for widow pension and housing assistance. After six months of follow-up, Naimi was provided with 75,000 rupees as housing assistance from Mo Kudia scheme, making use of which she has built a two room set house. Processing of the widow pension is in the final stage. Once approved, Naimi will get 300 rupees every month.

Subsequently Ejren educated Naimi on the benefits of Indian Government’s Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). The ICPS aims at ensuring education, health care and food for children in the age-group of 4-17 years, especially children who have endured some odds or trying circumstances. Under this scheme, extremely vulnerable children are entitled to a monthly assistance of 2,000 till they complete 18 years of age. Naimi wrote to the District Administration in May 2014 and successfully enlisted two of her children – Sushant (Boy) and Susanti (Girl) under the scheme. The two children are now getting monthly benefit of Rs 2,000/- each. The monthly sponsorship money serves as a great help to Naimi in catering to the health and nutrition needs of her children.  Naimi’s elder three children are studying in the nearby government primary school, where they are getting free school lunch from the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme of the government.