Starvation deaths haunt Jharkhand, now, rickshaw puller dies of hunger

A rickshaw puller in Jharkhand allegedly died of hunger on Friday.

Ranchi, Oct 23: It was only last week, when the report of death of an 11-year-old girl due to starvation in Jharkhand rattled the entire nation.

Now, one more starvation death from the state has been reported on Sunday by various news organisations.

According to reports, a 45-year-old rickshaw puller in Dhanbad's Jharia allegedly died of hunger due to "severe poverty-stricken conditions" of the family.

However, officials maintain that the victim, Baijnath Ravidas, died because he was suffering from prolonged illness.

A similar position was maintained by the Jharkhand officials when death of Santoshi Kumar was reported from Simdega. While Santoshi's family and food rights activists say she died of hunger, authorities in Jharkhand stated that the girl died on September 28 because of malaria.

Ravidas died on Friday evening. Parwati Devi, the victim's wife, after performing the last rites on Saturday, said that her husband hadn't eaten anything for the past two days.

"The oven in my house was not ignited for the last two days and he (Ravidas) succumbed to hunger," Parwati told reporters on Sunday.

Baijnath left behind five children including three sons -- Ravi (20), Suraj (14), Neeraj (10) -- and two daughters Suman (16) and Sulekha (8).

Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner A Dodde presented the family Rs 20,000 and assured to provide 50 kg of food grains immediately.

"He had been bedridden for the last one month. After reports of his death, a probe was conducted. It was found that he died of illness and not hunger," Dodde said.

According to reports, the rickshaw puller had applied for ration card in the second week of October. However, all the family members have Aadhaar Card.

The mother of the 11-year-old alleged that the girl died as the family stopped getting rice under the government's Public Distribution System (PDS) as they had no Aadhaar card.

Similarly, three brothers in Karnataka died in July due to alleged starvation as they too stopped getting rice under the PDS because they too had no Aadhaar card.

OneIndia