Boarded on a flight of challenges

Story by: Arushi Narchal
Images: Sahiba Chawdhary
Written by: Shyna Gupta
Edits: Kajol Tanaya Behera
The undulating land of Borimalang, Rajasthan, is a remote village full of topographic challenges. The presence of sloppy terraces makes agricultural activities difficult while the uneven land makes it impossible to build adjacent houses, giving rise to neighbourhood problems and distant living. Insufficiencies such as the dearth of water supply, lack of accessibility to hospitals or schools prevail in this region. This forces people to migrate to other cities to fulfil their basic needs.

This all makes life harder for the inhabitants like Ramesh who is a 40-year old taxi driver residing with his wife and a 6-year-old son. Being the only breadwinner in the family, he fought his ordeals gallantly and migrated to Ahmedabad, Gujarat to make his ends meet. But Ramesh was not aware of how bleak and unforeseen life can turn out to be.

An ill wind blew in the year 2018, forcing the sail of Ramesh’s existence in an unexpected direction. He painfully recalls the tragedy inflicted upon him, “One morning when I was driving back to my home after finishing the tedious work, a speedy car came from behind and vigorously hit my car. I was severely wounded and it took me 6 months to recover. I have still not regained full use of one of my legs.”

From then on life became a journey of trials and tribulations for Ramesh. He did not receive any compensation for his loss and was bedridden for half a year. Therefore, he was left with no choice but to mortgage half a bigha of his landholding to pay the medical bills. His only source of income was crushed under the unprecedented challenges of fate. Under such circumstances, his wife began to cultivate the leftover fragment of farmland and reared cattle but the produce was insufficient to subsist themselves.

Moreover, amidst these COVID19 crises, access to medical facilities from remote Boorimalang became extremely expensive and already stressed Ramesh struggled to sustain his family. This threw him in the pit of pestilence. Ramesh’s only hope now lies in his 6-year-old son. He pours out his heart to CASA saying, “I am not educated and have been trapped in such clutches. I won’t let my child suffer through it, I’ll educate him and make him self-sufficient”. Due to the pandemic, his son’s education has been hampered as well. This distant region poses a challenge for children’s education because of a lack of resources and limited learning opportunities. As education and development go hand in hand it is a necessity for these children to get literate. As a result, Ramesh might be forced to send his child to a distant city, even though he doesn’t have enough finances.

The severe and unmanageable afflictions brought upon Ramesh were notified to CASA by the Panchayat. CASA transferred an amount of Rs.3,000 into his bank account and Ramesh was assisted with dry ration and hygiene kits under the response program to COVID19. This sum has been of immense help in relieving Ramesh’s condition, as he could now sustain his family for the next few months.