The Story of
Aasha Sunar
“Widow’s allowance not enough to loan”
Aasha Sunar
Ms. Aasha Sunar has been living with her daughter in Byabsthit Basti Ward No. 3 of Lamki Chuha Municipality. She is a Dalit widow and currently lives with her youngest daughter who is studying in class 9. After giving birth to two daughters, husband died in his young age. After husband’s death, her mother-in-law began to despise her and sad days began in her life. Unable to bear much pain, she reached the shelter for her mother’s family. Her father died while she was staying at her mother’s house. After the death of her father, it became very difficult for her to make a living and choose another marriage to survive. After giving birth to a daughter, the second husband also died. The daughter, who was from the first husband has got married. The daughter from the second husband has become the support of her old age. She has been receiving widow’s allowance, which not sufficient to repay the loan. During the conversation, Ms. Sunar cried many times, remembering her past.
She said that she has been facing multiple discrimination from the society and the relatives because she is a woman, Dalit, widow and her poor condition.
She earns Rs. 300 a day to solve her and her family’s hand to mouth problems. Even though, she doesn’t always get work at the community. She was very scared to solve hand to mouth problems during the lock down. Her fear mitigated, when she got relief packages from FEDO. She received food and non-food items, such as: soap, medicine, hand wash, sugar, dal, rice, salt, gas, chana, gas stove, mobile pad etc. She felt relief when she got basic needs such as food and non-food item
“She cried and said, if she did not get the relief supports, she would be bedridden today. She again crying and adding, the relief I received from FEDO made me look like a human being and I am alive today “
The villagers used to say that even when I went to visit someone else’s house, they came to ask me for food, but the relief supports stopped me for going to someone else’s house and also stopped being despised. The relief package stopped her from going to the courtyard of the slum house and being hated.
The firewood is not available in the forest and she has no money to buy gas stove and cylinders for cooking. After receiving the gas stove and cylinders, her and her daughters time have save. Now, her daughter has got more time for her study because she don’t need to go searching the firewood in the jungle. Asha Sunar also got time for daily wage. The use of mobile has made it easier to find and go to work. She is happy to be able to talk to her relatives in her spare time and brightened his face. She revealed that the savings of the bank have increased the social prestige and even the sisters who did not speak these days are starting to speak.
Ms. Aasha plans to save Rs 500 per month from the widow’s allowance with the cash based support provided by FEDO, which will help in her old age. The hut where she lives is the meeting point of five streets. She wants to set up a stationary shop in that place in the future. She hopes that FEDO’s support and goodwill will be needed for that event. With FEDO’s support and goodwill, poor people like us survived the epidemic of Covid-19 and Lockdown, so they started burning gas stoves to cook their own food, wishing for the organization’s worldwide fame and its big popularity. She was of the view that the assistance provided by this organization in case the money received from the widow’s allowance was not enough to repay the debts of the loan providers, was an assistance that would never be forgotten in life.
