Poverty adds to the plight of flood victims

INARUWA, Aug 7: After her husband Devana died of tuberculosis last year, Shanti Devi Urao, in her mid thirties, resolved to not let her family collapse. Shanti Devi decided to work harder to provide better education to her children. However, almost two years later, her resoluteness has completely died down.



Shanti Devi was pregnant when Devana left her. Nevertheless, she shouldered the whole responsibility of looking after her three sons. Her bad days, however, were not over. After she gave birth to her fourth son, Shanti Devi also contracted tuberculosis. Unable to earn enough to make ends meet, she reluctantly sent her two sons to work. [break]



“I am an unfortunate mother,” she said. “I have to depend on my children.”



As she had to survive on her two tender sons´ meager earnings, Shanti Devi failed to provide adequate nutritious food to her newly-born son. This has resulted in malnourishment of her one-and-a half-year-old infant. Her infant weighs just 5 kg. A normal infant of this age group weighs between 7 to 10 kg.



Worse still, Shanti Devi´s little thatched-roof house, in Khikripatti of Sunsari district headquarter, was recently devastated by floods. She is now taking shelter in a make-shift tent erected with the help of Nepal Red Cross. “I know my infant is underweight,” she said. “However, I am helpless. I can not feed him adequately.”



As this scribe reached Shanti Devi´s temporary tent, her infant was silently lying in a bed-sheet cradle. His eyes were open. Wrinkles were visible in his slender body. As Shanti Devi narrated her heart-wrenching story, her infant baby did not whine at all. He seemed totally tired and powerless.



More malnourished infants



A couple of weeks ago, Sunsari Khola wreaked havoc in Khikripatti, rendering 19 families, along with Shanti Devi, homeless. In a line of make-shift tents erected for displaced families, more children are at the risk of malnourishment. In its latest check-up, Decentralized Action for Children and Women (DACAW), found four malnourished infants.



According to Sarita Urao, an outreach worker of DACAW based in Khikripatti, Bechan Urao´s daughter Ranjita, Sampatiya Urao´s daughter Kanchhi and Lila Urao´s son Niraj are underweight. All of them, who are two years old, weigh around six kg.



According to Dr Sudhir Khanal, who works for the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), children of this age group should weigh at least 10 kg.



“Mothers should give their infants nutritious foods at least five times a day,” Dr Khanal said. But, infants in the flood-ravaged village of Khikripatti hardly get two square meals a day. And, their meals mean just steamed rice and curry.



In the aftermath of the flood, according to Sarita, displaced families had to solely survive on beaten and puffed rice. “Whether adults and infants, they had nothing to eat, except beaten and puffed rice,” she said.

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