Aadhaar: The Quiet Darkness
11 year old Santoshi Kumari died of starvation in Jharkhand’s Simdega district after her family’s ration card was allegedly cancelled for not being linked to their Aadhaar number. Before her death, she kept asking for rice (bhaat) from her mother. Her family had to later flee from the village as it was attacked for ‘defaming the village’. We are here below reproducing related heart-touching piece which appeared on countercurrents.org website.
11 year old Santoshi Kumari died of starvation in Jharkhand’s Simdega district after her family’s ration card was allegedly cancelled for not being linked to their Aadhaar number. Before her death, she kept asking for rice (bhaat) from her mother. Her family had to later flee from the village as it was attacked for ‘defaming the village’.
We are here below reproducing related heart-touching piece which appeared on countercurrents.org website.
Knock, Knock
“Who‘s there?”
“Hunger”
“Hunger who?”
“Santoshi hai?”
“You alone?”
“Na, na, Aadhar is with me”
“Aadhar beta you only explain to him. He’s after Santoshi.”
“Open the door or I’ll break it!”
“But Santoshi is not at home. She’s gone to school”
There is a burst of laughter, “O ho! Beti parhao, beti bachao, haan?”
“You go away from here. You are mean just like the ration shop owner. Help me Aadhar beta, help me!”
No more knocks. The darkness falls quiet.
And then a feeble voice from inside the shanty, “bhaat, bhaat, bhaat.”
Silence.
Prof. Shah Alam Khan
AIIMS, New Delhi
