AUGUSTO RODRIGUES
CHICALIM: Two women senior citizens languishing in Health Centres for want of home and the government and non-government organisations (NGOs) unable to do much, cuts a sorry figure of the State’s outlook towards the vulnerable.
Whilst septuagenarian Mangal Naik was found staying over 15 years at the Canacona Primary Health Centre (PHC) as reported by O Heraldo in its edition dated September 18, 2024, sixty-five year-old Anita Singh was found walking aimlessly inside the women’s ward of the Chicalim sub district hospital on Thursday.
After having been declared fit for discharge, three-and-a-half months back, frail Singh walks aimlessly past her bed waiting for the government or some NGO to find a place she can call home.
“She survived a personal tragedy. She was brought by the police and we later shifted her to the Goa Medical college (GMC) where once stabilised, she was sent back. But after her recovery, I could not discharge her as she had no place to go. So, she has been here since,” disclosed Dr Sujata Kamath, Health Officer of the Chicalim Sub District Hospital.
Singh’s Aadhaar card discloses she is from Bombay, but the edgy lady says, “I have been living in Kharewada in Vasco for many years. I cannot go to the room where I live because I have no money to pay rent.”
“I used to get a government pension which has been stopped as I could not register again in November as I was sick. My daughter who is in Mumbai sends me Rs 1,000 a month through some contact every month with which the nurses get me fruits,” confesses Singh who does not mind moving out to a safe home.
“Anita’s pension may have been stopped by the government, if she did not go and sign after her birthday. Her Aadhaar card shows she was born on 11-10-1959, and probably she needed to re-sign after her birthday,” explains Vedika Sawant, a volunteer at the sub district hospital and a help to Singh.
“As soon as I realised that she was fit for discharge, I wrote to the police because they had brought her to the hospital, but they could not do much. Where would they keep her?” wondered Dr Kamath.
“I then wrote to the Women and Child Department (WCD) and a couple of NGOs and none replied. I know people who have recovered cannot be kept in hospital but, I am human and I just couldn’t throw an old lady out on the roads,” emotes Dr Kamath.
“We have kept her in a corridor away from the sick, lest she gets some infection from them and we feed her. She does not trouble anyone but at the end of the day, a hospital is not a home for the aged,” reasons Dr Kamath.
“Anita gets hyper sometimes. She must be going through a hell of emotions not knowing what to expect next within the four walls that she is in. She knows she is safe, but must know that she will have to one day leave,” says Sawant.
“Once we get the details of the lady, be assured that we will find a place. I am not aware if this office has been intimated and, if we have and there has been a delay, we shall act,” promised Jyoti Desai, Deputy Director (Administration) of WCD.