Left in the lurch: Widowed mother of two is yet to get a paisa

Left to fend for her two sons, Ashish (11) and Krishna (8), Kanchan tried to sell vegetables like her husband but found herself running into losses. Suddenly, the monthly rental of Rs 4500 for a one-room accommodation in Sector 52 seemed too high. One fine day, she packed her bags, and returned home to Mau in Uttar Pradesh with her children.

It was a heart-wrenching journey, for her husband Jatinder had moved to the city in 2003 in search of a bright future and she felt she was betraying him.

“But I couldn’t help it, I did not receive a paisa from the government or the UT administration,’’ recounts Kanchan, who found her close relatives, including her late husband’s elder brothers, turning their back on her when they realised she was in dire need of financial help.

Prior to their father’s death, both the children were studying in government schools in the city, but this April, their names were struck off from the rolls. The education department, which was tasked to keep tabs on children of Covid-19 victims, didn’t make any effort to track them down.

Kanchan said an official took details from her about the financial position of the family, her children’s schooling etc a few months after her husband’s death but that was all. She didn’t hear anything from him after this interaction.

“For a family like us, even a compensation of Rs 50,000 by the central government would have gone a long way, I could have set up a small rehri with that sum. But I got nothing.’’

Kanchan said she was told that she would have to stay on in the city to get any of the benefits, including those under the Parvarish scheme of the UT administration. Kanchan says her neighbours told her that she could get Rs 50,000 compensation from the government besides 5000 per child every month and free education. I tried contacting a few numbers but they told me that for any sort of benefit from the Chandigarh administration, I would have to stay in the city. I told them that I had all the documents with me and the COVID report also. But I didn’t get any response. How could I return when I had run out of money? I didn’t even have enough money to buy a bus ticket from UP to Chandigarh,’’ says Kanchan, who is now at the mercy of her brothers.

The mother of two tried to get compensation from a local district department in UP, but she was told that her case fell in the jurisdiction of the city where her husband had breathed his last.

Jatinder Gupta, a resident of Sector 52 who used to sell vegetables, passed away on July 10, 2020.

Ten months on, life has become one long struggle for the family. “It’s not fair, I am not educated. The UT administration knew that my husband had died of Covid, it was on record. They knew I was very poor. Wasn’t it their duty to reach out to me and my children? What is the point of such schemes when they don’t reach people who need them the most?”