“If I don’t die this winter, I shall live another year,” 80-year-old Bhutani Majhi of Belwa, Parsa said when asked about her situation. “It’s quite hard to withstand the biting cold with a weak body,” she added.[break]
Her days are now spent collecting firewood and sitting around fires. “We cover our bodies with mats in the night, and sit around the fire if we don’t feel warm enough,” she disclosed.
The impoverished, who live on daily wages, cannot afford warm clothes for winter and dread the numbing cold more than any disease, Bhutani claimed. “I’ve seen most of the elderly from poor families die in winter,” she added and begged for warm clothes for this winter.
Jamuna Devi Majhi says all the elderly of some 20 Musahar families in the village face the same challenge. “The cold always terrorizes us. The young can withstand it but we elederly can’t,” she stated. “We warm our bodies sleeping on hay and covering ourselves with a mat,” she added.
“We wait in hopes of warmth from the sun but the dense fog blocks out the sun,” complained another elderly, Bhagani Majhi. Deepak Shrestha of Mill Chowk, Parsa said all the dalit elderly in the tarai face a similar fate in winter.
“Most families of the Musahar, Chamar, Dom and other dalit communities do not even have a blanket and spend their nights sitting around fires,” he said.
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