Too old to earn, they live on roots

Dev Patil’s myopic eyes are hopeful, but nothing can hide his hunger. The 72-year-old has neither land nor children and in his village ...

Dev Patil’s myopic eyes are hopeful, but nothing can hide his hunger. The 72-year-old has neither land nor children and in his village of Gondha Khurda in Thane district, nothing can be a greater curse. ‘‘Nobody gives work to old people like me. Sometimes I survive on wild roots,’’ he said, camping with 1,000 other ageing tribals outside the Mokhada Tehsildar’s office for a week till November 12.

The protest was a last-ditch effort by the senior citizens to get their pension restored. In Congress-ruled Maharashtra, a recent review of pension schemes for senior citizens — under the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana and Indira Gandhi Niradhar Yojana — deprived over 2,000 aged tribals of Mokhada of their meagre monthly allowance of Rs 250.

A high court intervention in October 2002 directed the state to review all beneficiaries of old age schemes, following which the state machinery hastily deleted about 2.5 lakh people from the original list. In Mokhada, 2,300 of the 4,385 beneficiaries have been left in the lurch. Mokhada’s tribals live off their land or toil on others’ land till the body is able. Old age and disability bring poverty. Work itself is only available in the cultivation season.

After that, lunch is a root soaked overnight in a stream or pool to remove bitterness. Called kandha, the boiled or roasted root has become their staple diet. ‘‘It’s difficult to live without that monthly income. Sometimes all we get to fill our stomachs is plain water and roots,’’ said Dev Mukne, 65, a tribal from Vashela village. Thane District Collector I.S. Chahal said the process to verify eligibility of those deleted from the list has begun.

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