How do we feed cows?
Author: Mamta Sen Date: 04 Mar 2008
Farmer widows who got cattle in the ‘relief’ package found it difficult to maintain their diet
Kamlabai Ghude
Union Minister for Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar addressing a group of widows in Wardha district on Sunday. pics/mamta sen
KAMLABAI Ghude sobs uncontrollably and in deep breaks explains why she had to sell the cow she had almost got attached to, after the suicide of her husband. Kamlabai was among the widows who received a cow as compensation after her husband committed suicide in June 2006. The 60-something Dalit widow from Lonsawali village in Wardha district says that the officials landed up at her house and made her take the cow. “I have never kept a cattle and hence didn’t know how to maintain it. This animal eats more than all of us and forget the milk, there is hardly any,” she said. According to her, the announcement of loan waiver is of no help either. “He is dead what good would it do now?” she questioned, while wiping away her tears.Anusaya Rathod, from the Banjara community from Bothbodan village in Yavatmal district is dreading the Rs 1 lakh cheque issued to her by the government for the death of her farmer husband who committed suicide by consuming pesticide. “My in-laws are demanding the money and till that doesn’t come I am being given a place to stay in the house. I don’t know where I will go once I get the money,” the 25-year-old mother of two (aged 3 and 6) said. Kishore Tiwari, president of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti says that between 1995-2006, around 36,428 farmers have committed suicide. “In 2007 there were 1206, while till February this year 200 farmers have committed suicide,” he says.
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