Officials of the Mainaguri block administration of Jalpaiguri on Monday evening rushed to the house of a homemaker, who had, some hours before, thrown her one-and-a-half-year-old boy into the swollen Teesta river after failing to arrange food for him.
As questions were raised as to how the family had no food in the house despite a slew of welfare schemes of the state and Centre to help the marginalised, officials found out that the woman and her husband were ignorant of these schemes.
“Only Bipul Bawali, the husband, has a ration card. The woman, Sima, and their two minor children do not have ration cards. Also, we doubt whether the husband regularly collected foodgrains free of cost from the ration shop,” said an official.
Bipul and Sima live in Marichbari village on the bank of the Teesta riverbank with their three-year-old daughter and toddler son.
On Monday morning, the boy was crying for food but there was nothing at home because Bipul, a carpenter, had not made any earnings over the past few days. Frustrated, Sima took the crying boy to the riverbank and threw him into the swollen Teesta.
Two local girls and a woman, who were nearby, noticed it. The girls jumped into the river to rescue the child.
As the news spread, a team from the BDO’s office, led by Kazi Mobin, the joint BDO, met the couple the same evening.
“It is true that I do not have a ration card and an Aadhaar card. I had never tried to get these cards. I had no idea about Lakshmir Bhandar and other schemes of the state government,” admitted Sima.
“What I did was wrong. It will never happen again,” she added.
Officials also readied application forms so that Sima and her children could get ration cards.
“We will get the cards ready at the earliest. The family will be enrolled under all social welfare schemes that they are entitled to,” Mobin, the joint BDO, said.
The team gave the family foodgrains, utensils and some other essentials.
On Tuesday, some NGOs from Jalpaiguri visited the family with baby food and some other items.
“My wife has understood her error. We are a poor family and I thank the block administration and local panchayat members for standing in our support,” Bipul said.
Rescuers feted
The Mainaguri block administration on Tuesday felicitated Pallabi Kirtania and Mallika Pal, the girls who jumped into the swollen Teesta river to rescue Sima's toddler on Monday.
BDO Prasenjit Kundu and joint BDO Kazi Mobin handed over mementos and certificates to them in a function held at the BDO office.
“Both of them have done a wonderful job by saving the child's life. They should be role models for other students as they have shown how to help others in crisis,” said BDO Kundu.