This was evident from a recent row during the formation of a school management committee (SMC) of a school in Dhanusha district.
A six-member family, including four children, had been living happily in Sabila-1 of the district. However, the children's lives have plunged into sorrow after the clash on March 22 in which their father was critically injured and now lies unconscious in a hospital.
The sole bread earner of the family, Ram Sagar Shah, sustained serious brain injury and his ribs got broken in the clash. Altercations during the formation of SMCs are being increasingly reported from districts with many of then turning violent. Stakeholders allege that disputes erupt mainly due to political interference as local parties vie to get their cadres appointed in the committee that controls, among other things, the funds and budget of the school, hiring of staff.Shah was rushed to Nepal Medical Hospital at Jorpati for treatment. Although he underwent a brain surgery, his health has shown no sign of improvement even after 13th day in the ICU of the hospital.
On the same day of his brain surgery, his wife Sangeeta passed away, apparently due shock and worrying too much.
Although she had an old womb-infection, doctors at the hospital are convinced that excessive depression led to her death.
"She was very ill since the last two years. Despite her illness, she had been taking care of her children with little rest," said her nephew Amber Binda Shah. "Everyone believes that she died due to depression," he added.
After the death of their mother and with their father lying in the ICU, the couple's children have been left with no one to take care of them.
While their four-year-old son, Akash, is too young to comprehend the tragedy, their daughters Sujita, 6, and Punita, 8, are deeply worried about how they will manage their livelihood. Another daughter, fifteen-year-old Amrita, who was married a year earlier, faces a dilemma of whether to take care of her siblings or of her own family.
Earlier, the family had been making their livelihood by selling clothes as street vendor. In the name of property, the family owned a small patch of land and a mud house.
"Shah was neither an active party cadre nor did he have enmity with anyone. Why does his innocent family have to face such hardships now?" said a local Ram Babu Shah.
According to Ram Babu, the misfortune is due to misleading politics and pathetic administration's action.
"The government should full responsibility of the treatment of Ram Sagar and his children's future," he said.
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