Worse than death

IT seemed like a normal meagre meal for Dharmi Rathod when suddenly her husband Ramesh started vomiting. He had barely eaten anything. He was choking on the pesticide he had swallowed. His friends rushed him to hospital, but he died there on November 10. Dharmi was stunned. She did not have a single paisa with her.

People of village Bongavan in Yavatmal district collected money for his funeral. They helped her with food and money. One month later, Dharmi is still in a state of shock. "I have no idea how much he owed and how many loans he had taken. All I know is that the day before he died, bank officials had come to our hut." The trauma has taken its toll on Dharmi. She is constantly ill and has visited the hospital thrice.

How does Dharmi manage to look after herself and her two children? "My son works as a farm hand every weekend. From that money, we go to the market," she says. Even when Ramesh was alive, Dharmi and Ramesh both worked as farm labourers earning Rs.20 and Rs.40 a day respectively. They could survive only by tilling their four-acre farm. This season, it will yield less than a quintal of cotton. And, Dharmi does not know the first thing about managing a farm. Unable to cope, she has called her relatives to help her sort out her life.

Ramesh seems to have left Dharmi with an existence worse than death.