Moodbidri: Poor Mother Struggles to Support Handicapped Twins
by Rajesh S
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SB)
Moodbidri, Feb 23: A family at Padil – Bakyar in Todar village here that needs to support twins handicapped children is suffering without any help from the government with no permanent source of income. The matriarch of the family, Ashwini Shetty has been on a struggle to fend her physically-challenged children and husband, who is bedridden after an accident left his lower limbs motionless.
Her daughter Akshita (16) has no body strength and cannot move an inch without mother’s support and is mentally-challenged as well. While son Arun has little strength in his lower and upper limbs but is mentally sound and yet he too is more or less dependent on his mother to move around. If these difficulties were not enough, Ashwini’s husband Ashok Shetty met with an accident for the second time while working in Mumbai leaving the family without a permanent income.
Ashwini used to roll beedis to supplement family income, which though she continues even to date is not enough to cover her family members’ needs. Despite the misery, she was filled with joy when her son passed class X after being sent to school on an autorickshaw expending Rs 900 a month.
Though locals had informed district in-charge minister J Krishna Palemar about the family and demanded government support no help has been offered so far. The government officers though undertook some official formalities like paperwork have limited themselves to just that and no further action has been taken. People’s representatives too have not responded to the appeals and no single officers from the government offices visited the family. However, Prakash Pandeshwar and other staff members of local Jayakirana newspaper recently provided rice sufficient for the family for three years.
The family now is expecting help from the donors, which may prove to be a silver lining in their otherwise dull life.
The interested donors can contact the family on the address :
Ashwini Shetty,
Padil - Bakyar Darkas House,
Todar Village,
Mijar Post
PIN : 574225
Moodubidri - Karnataka
or send the amount to
SB Account No 6693,
Canara Bank,
Sacheripet branch - 576128
Bank's IFSC Code: CNRB0000646
(Note : Since family lives in rural area, they do not hold 16-digit bank account numbers)