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| Orissa grapples with cholera .. |
| It also claims that the figure is being under-reported to minimise the amount of compensation to be paid to the families of the dead.
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| INDIA
, 4-September-2007
0:37:7 AM |
| India is the second fastest growing economy in the world. It's a country that attracts medical tourists from all parts of the world.
But there's the other face of India, where people seem to accept disease and mass death as a matter of course, like Kashipur in Orissa's Rayagada district, which is struggling to deal with a massive outbreak of cholera.
And as NDTV found out in a report carried last week, it's the lack of safe drinking water that has led to this health crisis in Orissa, which has claimed at least 119 lives since August.
That's the figure given by health officials in the state. But an NGO working in the worst affected areas has claimed that more than double that number have died.
It also claims that the figure is being under-reported to minimise the amount of compensation to be paid to the families of the dead.
The Orissa government has rejected the NGO's claims.
Every year at least 50 people die due to cholera or diarrhea. This year has seen the worst outbreak in years. But for those who have lost their bread winners or have been orphaned statistics are of no relevance.
Lost breadwinners
And although the situation has improved over the last week, the epidemic has left many families desperate and helpless.
NDTV visited two families that have lost their breadwinners.
It has been two weeks since Kamali's husband Lalendra died of cholera, and she is shattered.
One of the unfortunate 11 in the village, who have fallen prey so far to the killer epidemic, Kamali may be in mourning but she knows there's a tougher job at hand - looking after her five children.
''My husband was given medicines at the hospital but that did not save his life. He was the breadwinner and now I don't know how I can take care of five children. I have to play both father and mother to them,'' said Kamali, Lalendra's widow.
Kamali isn't alone in grief.
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