GORKHA, Jan 19 : Sabitri Sunar, 42, of Muchchok VDC in Gorkha district burst into tears when she could not get a quake victim identification card and a relief amount on Tuesday, almost nine months after the April earthquake. While she struggles to get a meager amount of help, her nine-month-old toddler and 70-year-old mother depend almost entirely on her.
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Sabitri has been to the district administration office several times to get her quakle victim identification card and relief amount, but to little avail.
When the April 25 earthquake hit the country, she had given birth to her fifth daughter just six days earlier. The quake razed her house. Her husband Bhim Bahadur, a daily wage earner, went out for work that day and never returned. The Sunar couple was in the capital at the time of the disaster.As she hadn’t acquired her citizenship certificate before her husband went missing, officials claim that she isn’t legally eligible to receive any aid from the state.
“He always took me with him wherever he went. We did not know the importance of citizenship papers,” she said. Her eldest daughter has already gotten married while the other three are in an orphanage in Kathmandu. A Korean citizen took them to the orphanage after seeing the pathetic situation of the Sunar family in the aftermath of the disaster.
Sabitri’s youngest daughter has a heart problem and needs to take medicine regularly. Sabitri is ill herself but begs money to buy medicine for her ailing infant.
She pleaded with police in the capital several times to find her husband. She even provided them with his finger print sample. But after they could not trace him, she returned home.
She has not yet received Rs 15,000 from the local authorities for putting up a temporary shelter or Rs 10,000 for warm clothing. She has been living at her parental home in Choprak.
“We have been able to afford just one meal a day with my mother’s elderly allowance. I have gotten nothing by way of relief. I don’t understand why the authorities are dillydallying over relief for a poor victim like me,” she said.
She said she visited the village development committee office to get her citizenship. But officials said she did not have sufficient documents to claim citizenship.
On Monday, she was at the district administration office with her mother and baby daughter for her citizenship. As the work could not get completed that day, they had to sleep in the waiting hall of a hospital on empty stomachs. On Tuesday, she returned to the district administration office.
Looking at her pathetic condition, officials have assured her they will issue the citizenship.
She said her three daughters in the orphanage in the capital will have serious problems if she does not get her citizenship. “The orphanage is asking for their birth certificates. Without my citizenship, I have not been able to make out any documents for them,” added she.
Genuine earthquake victims like Savitri have been deprived of identification cards let alone any relief distributed by the state. Locals said there are large numbers of genuine quake victims who remain deprived in this fashion.
While 70 thousand households have been given relief materials the real number of quake affected households is 60,000.
