Poor woman dies in lack of state support

By Our Correspondent,Urlabari, Nov. 8: There are three levels of government - federal, provincial and local - to serve people in the country. However, the poor and needy people are still left to die without obtaining a citizenship certificate.

When one lacks a citizenship certificate, they are deprived of government facilities. It was what happened to Sakuni Rishidev, 51, a poor woman in Urlabari. 

She passed away very tragically on Saturday. She was survived by her mentally retarded husband and the couple had no child to take care of themselves. In the lack of a citizenship certificate, she was unable to receive any government facilities.  

Sakuni lived on the food she prepared in the evening from her husband's daytime bagging. On Saturday, she was found dead when her husband went to the village for begging. Locals came to know about her death after a long time as she used to stay at a secluded refuge away from the village. 

Sakuni was sick suffering from uterus problem. Sakuni, who had no social and political access due to her extreme poverty, was being treated by raising donations under the leadership of a local, Sushil Rai. "Medicine is not the only thing people need for their survival. A warm bed to sleep on and food are also needed at home," he added.

Rai said he was not able to collect everything to help the poor in the society. "We took her to Araniko Hospital for treatment and the health was improving too," he recalled previous days. 

Sakuni died Saturday when her husband was not at home. Rai also appealed to support for the cremation and her last rites. 

He said that the governments – irrespective of local, provincial or federal - need to provide citizenship to the poor to help them for their survival. The very poor who don’t have citizenship are dying because they are deprived of government facilities without citizenship certificates in hand. 

Rai said that the government should provide citizenship to extremely poor Nepalis who had spent three to four generations in the country. 

Ramesh Raut, another local, said he would help the poor for their treatment.