Deogarh: Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19 on March 24, the life and livelihood of crores of people have been massively affected. Both the Union government and Odisha government have announced numbers of measures and sanctioned crores of rupees to ensure that no one remains hungry during the lockdown period. However, the picture of reality of some poor and hungry people in some places, who used to survive on the charity of people at the markets, is quite different. The shocking scene of a mentally-challenged hungry youth eating some rotten fruits for survival in Deogarh town said it all.
A mentally-retired youth, in his late 20s, was seen eating some rotten fruits which were thrown on the road by some fruit sellers today. What more appealing was that a cow was standing just beside him while some medicine store owners near the spot had turned mute spectators.
After noticing the shocking reality of the youth some media persons informed the officials of local civic body, who assured to look into the matter.
However, the plight of the mentally-challenged youth, whose identity is yet to be known, not only exposed the failure of governments’ initiatives for the poor and needy but also raised a question mark over the humanity during such harrowing time.
Ms Kalinga