Hanging by a thread

He is 22 8212; an age where life begins for most. But in the silk weaver colonies of Varanasi, Riyazuddin isn8217;t alone in his despair. According to a survey conducted by the Bunkar Dastkar Adhikar Manch, at least 20 per cent of the population in the weaver colonies of Nakkighat, Shivaranpur, Beluan and Bhaghliva Nagla areas is suffering from TB. About 4 lakh weavers live in Varanasi. Of them, 4,000 like Riyazuddin live in Mominpur.

With the demand for Benarasi silk saris on the wane, weavers have little work and no money to spare for medicines. One of those suffering from TB, Mohammad Yasin, says: 8216;8216;If we buy food, we can8217;t buy medicine; if we buy medicine, we won8217;t be able to spare anything for food.8217;8217;

Riyazuddin8217;s father Hasmatullah fought bravely on till last week to hide from his neighbours that his family too was now one of the thousand households of weavers in the locality in dire straits. But when Riyazuddin8217;s condition worsened, he had no choice but to seek help.

8216;8216;The doctors say that he is frailer than my other four sons and needs nutritious food before medicines. Initially, we arranged nutritious food, fruits and medicines for him. But now I have no money or means to arrange money,8217;8217; Hasmatullah told The Sunday Express.

Aftab Alam Ansari, a recently elected BDC member from the area and himself a bankrupt weaver, says of the 4,000 people in the locality, at least 200 are suffering from TB. According to him, 20 people have died of starvation and TB in Ghamariya-Mominpur alone in the last one year.

Dr Shalini Raman, who works for UP Voluntary Health Association, says she too had conducted a study in Nakkighat area and found over 20 per cent malnutrition cases 8212; most of whom caught TB later. 8216;8216;I have seen people dying before my eyes. The role of the government is dicey. The DOT programme is a complete failure and most of the deaths pass unreported,8217;8217; she says.

SIDDIQ Hassan, convener of the Bunkar Dastkar Adhikar Manch, calls the situation a result of past blunders and short-sighted communalism. 8216;8216;The situation of the handloom silk weavers deteriorated drastically after the communal riots in 1972. At that time, there were Muslim weavers and Hindu wholesale buyers. The Muslim leaders called upon the people of their community to themselves buy their products and stop giving these to Hindu businessmen. But gradually, the new buyers started mixing the original Benarasi sari with imitation saris, and the market substantially collapsed,8217;8217; says Hassan.

While in the 1970s, a weaver used to make a sari in three days and get Rs 30 for each sari 8212; or Rs 300 a month, a substantial sum in those days 8212; now, after more than three and a half decades, they get Rs 40 for weaving one sari which, as Hassan points out, is peanuts.

This is a hard blow for weavers who have seen a glorious past, points out Hassan, leading many to conceal their plight till it is too late 8212; like in Riyazuddin8217;s case. 8216;8216;They don8217;t like to talk about their trouble. It was only last week that I had gone to see Riyazuddin, but his father didn8217;t allow me to enter his house and told me flatly that everything was alright with him and his family. They are proud of their past and hide any hunger deaths in their families.8217;8217;

Ansari agrees. 8216;8216;People hide such information because they think that their poverty would become public talk and they would be looked down upon by others in the neighbourhood,8217;8217; he said.

District TB Control Officer Vinod Kumar Srivastava admits that the people are reluctant to talk about their problems but adds that the department is alert and has cured 87 per cent of the cases successfully.

Dr L P Rawat, Joint Director, State TB Control Department, also claims that they are alert and have checked the disease8217;s spread in Varanasi 8216;8216;substantially8217;8217;. 8216;8216;But lack of awareness always comes in our way to total success. We are continuously organising awareness programmes and increasing the number of DOT providers with the hope of eradicating TB completely from UP,8217;8217; he says.

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