Assam Family in Remote Village Appeals for "Help" amid Lockdown, Video goes Viral

Biswanath, April 6, 2020:

"Help", appeals a family of daily-wage laborers in Baligaon under Biswanath district of Assam, a day after their stock of rice ran out. With starvation looming on the horizon, Saraswati Choudhury, the daughter of the family, has taken to social media to call forth anyone -- from the Government to the civilians -- to help the family in these dire times.

Saraswati recently went live on Facebook to post the family's collective appeal for help, and the post has now gone viral on the platform after it was picked up by popular page 'Cultural Mixtures', which is coordinating the relief measures for the family.

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Addressing the people of the state at large, she explained the deplorable condition of her family, while underlining that the people who do not live near the 'main road' are being deprived from the Government's relief measures. "From last night, we do not have even rice and we can not even go out", she rues.

She further complains that they are having to survive on a diet of kosu (a variety of root found in Assam). The girl says that since they live in a remote village, the Government has not been able to reach them through its initiatives to aid the poor and needy, part of its vaunted "1,4 lakh crore package."

"We ran out of relief as nobody can give us anything, they are all poor here", she complains. Saraswati says that she herself has an infant daughter who is being fed by the neighbours are they do not have enough. Saraswati complains that they have run out of their paltry savings, accrued from hard labour work which is no more available due to the lockdown.

"Cannot even go out. I need rice at least. Even our younger daughter is in the same state. We are all poor. Near the main road, all have been given relief, but we have been deprived", Saraswati's middle-aged mother says in the video, with tears pouring from her eyes in despair.

"You are giving people on the roadside. But if you bring us stuff here, we will be able to quell hunger. Feels sad that her daughter calls her father and calls him, but he cannot come as he is in Tezpur", Saraswati says, calling attention to the separation of her family who have been torn apart.

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Talking to Inside Northeast, the admin who runs the page where the video was posted, said, "We have been contacted by good Samaritans who wish to help the family in their time of great need. They have taken the account number to help them. Surely, they will contribute something."

That the poor and the underprivileged have been great sufferers due to the Indian Government's hastily-called 21-day lockdown to contain the novel coronavirus is no secret. Now, it seems, some in the remoter areas of Assam have even run our of rice and other grains as all activity continues to be in a state of halt amid the lockdown.

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