Helpless mother sends ‘dying’ child away to India

ARJUN POUDEL

BAJHANG, May 14:
Even at the age of 56, Kamala Kami works as a porter, and the load she carries is sometimes heavier than her emaciated body.

The grandmother of five sets out early in the morning from her village of Jaisigaun in Rithapatha-2 of Bajhang as she has to walk more than three hours a day just to reach the district headquarters in search of work.

“This is all I can do for survival of my children,´ says Kami in the local dialect.

Tears roll down to her cheeks before she could speak anything, and her miseries bring a lump to one”s throat.

Born and brought up in abject poverty in one of the most oppressed communities, Kamala”s miseries seem to have increased over the years.

Her life took a turn for worse since her spouse died some fifteen years ago. As if that was not enough her real misery started after she knew that her youngest son Makar, 14, is dying because of lack of treatment. Blood comes out from his urine and mouth remains dry most of the time. Doctors at the district hospital have told her that Makar has to undergo valve replacement surgery and needs to go to the capital as soon as possible. Helpless as she is, she could not afford to send him to Kathmandu for treatment. ´I sent him to Mussoorie (India) instead with Rs 1,000 I earned from carrying loads,´ she weeps, hoping that he might find an opportunity to make some money for the treatment. Though Kamala”s daughter and the son-in-law live in Mussoorie, they are also struggling to make their ends meet. Her other two sons are also in India but their story is not much different either. In her heart of hearts, Kamala knows that time in running out for Makar, and this is eating her up from within. “My son might not return home,´ she admits, bursting into tears. Kami did not know that the government provides free valves and valve replacement surgery to the children under the age of 15 and the elderly over the age of 75. ´If the boy is under 15 and could manage to come to our hospital we will provide free treatment to him,´ says Dr Man Bahadur KC, Director at the Sahid Gangalal National Heart Center. But the treatment entails other expenses such as traveling and lodging, which the folk like Kamala, who are barely managing to survive, simply cannot afford. If only she knew anyone in the capital she might have mustered enough courage to take her child to the capital. “I haven”t been to Kathmandu before. Nor do I recognize anyone there. Where would we stay and how would we meet the expenses,” she says dejectedly.
(source : http://www.myrepublica.com)