Disabled youth in chains for 22 years; PM's help sought

DEHRADUN:

Pankaj Rana

, 22, spends his time crawling across the room in which he has been kept chained ever since he was born. Suffering from quadriparesis, a disease which renders limbs immobile as well as aphasia which affects the comprehension of speech, Rana is living a hard life. His mother, a widow, says that she cannot take her son to the hospital for treatment as she doesn't have enough money which is why she keeps him tied inside her house in

Rudraprayag

district of

Uttarakhand

.

"I have no other option but to tie up my son else he will crawl into the open and may be attacked by an animal. Leopard attacks are quite frequent and I fear for his safety," said Saroj Rana, the youth's mother. Saroj's husband Dinesh Rana who worked as a cook in Delhi passed away almost eight years ago. Since then, she has had to fend for her three sons including Pankaj and forced to take up a labourer's job. "Initially we couldn't understand what was wrong with Pankaj."

Although Saroj is eligible for a widow pension of Rs 800 per month, she says that she has not received the amount for the past six months. The family currently subsides on her meagre earnings as a labourer and the specially-abled pension of Rs 1000 that Pankaj gets.

She says she now wants to highlight the plight of her son and that of children like him - whose condition will deteriorate further if they don't get proper health care - to the Prime Minister. "I wish that during his next visit, he sees the condition in which poor children who are ill are forced to live in dev bhoomi. At least, the government can set up rehabilitation centres in all parts of the hills for such children rather than asking us to travel to the plains all the time which people like me cannot afford."