Bihar: AIDS Patient Cremated by Wife Alone

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AIDS victim cremated by wife alone

Darbhanga: Despite the government's efforts to create awareness

about HIV/AIDS, the wife of a patient who died of the dreaded disease, found no

help from anybody in the village to carry out his last rites and was forced to

do them all on her own.

Asha Devi who lost her husband Surendra Kumar, an Aids patient, on

Wednesday had to drag his body all on her own the backyard of her house at

kharia village in Darbhanga district and cremate it with twigs and leaves she

had collected.

" I waited for long hours for people of the village to come but

when nobody turned up I gathered the fallen twigs and leaves for his pyre and

cremated him, " Asha Devi said on Friday at her home, about 28 km fro the

district headquarters.

Kumar, a 50-year-old factory worker in Mumbai, had contracted the

disease there and had returned to the village a month ago to live out his last

days.

The couple has three children, including a 10-month old baby. Their

two sons, one 13-year old another 10-years –old, work at hotel in Orissa.

The director of state Aids control committee Surendra Prasad Sinha

admitted about the little impact of the various HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.

Sinha said in Patna he has written a letter to the Darbhanga civil

surgeon and district magistrate on Friday to spread information related to

HIV/Aids more vigorously in the area to allay people's fear about the disease.

The Kharia case is not an isolated one in Bihar. A few years ago, a

family was ostracised fearing infection at Hathauri village in Muzaffarpur

district after four members had died in quick succession.

The family was pushed to the brink of starvation until the government

intervened.

Darbhanga district magistrate Upendra Sharma said on Friday he has

sent the sub-division officer and civil surgeon to Khaira to hand over Rs 10,000

to Asha Devi and perform medical test on the family members.

Attributing the case to the poor literacy, the DM said the government would

provide a house under Indira Awas Yojna to the family, besides other facilities

provided to people living below poverty line.

Source: The Times of India, Patna,

_____________________

Pankaj Sinha

Panchbati nagar, Rajendra Nagar,Patna

Bihar, Phone- 9835065392

E-mail: pankajsinha88@...