Displaced by flood, these inmates making a living from relief camp
GORAKHPUR: Even as rains and flood have ravaged their lives and livelihood, a few inmates of relief camps in Gorakhpur have shown that life continues even at the face of gravest of difficulties.
Despite facing many odds, thirty-year-old Punam Prajapti, a single mother of three kids, and Phulkumari (35), mother of a teen girl, living at Bal Vihar School at Laldiggi camp have been working tirelessly to eke out a living for themselves and their loved ones.
Punam, who chose to part ways from her drunkard and abusive husband, has been stitching ladies suit with her motorized sewing machine from the relief camp room which she shares with 15 members of five families.
Similarly, Phulkumari along with her teen daughter can be spotted sitting on the floor of another room of the second storey of the camp and packing cotton buds to be supplied on order to a local marketer in nearby market of Sahabganj. Punam and Phulkumari are among hundreds of inmates, mostly jobless daily wagers, from nearby Hanumangarhi area whose lives have been turned upside down by the swollen Rapti river.
With measuring tape around her neck, Punam said “When the water started rising near my house I was shifted here. Later, I and my brother-in-law waded through chest deep water to bring my sewing machine from my partially inundated home in Hanumangarhi. I have been living here since Rakshabandhan and thought to continue my work right from this relief camp.” In another room of the second storey of school, Phulkuamri is also busy with her work of packing cottons buds.
“My husband is drunkard and does nothing, so I eke out living by packing these buds and supplying them to store on order. For every kg of packed buds, I get Rs 20. In a day I can pack 4-5 kgs earning round Rs 100. It is better to earn some money then to sit idle here,” she said. Another inmate Deepak Kumar, who works at garment shop in Ghantaghar market, said after the floods inundated his rented home in Hanumangargi he dropped his wife and kids at her home in Bihar and continued to stay at the camp from where he regularly attends his job at shop.