Ramnad, Tamil Nadu
Venkalamadayan stretched his arms to grab his son, Laxmanan, and then to carry him across the road to his little house. He was sitting here from the morning on a wooden cot kept at the shade of a tambourine tree across the road. Laxmanan is about 27 years old and he is the youngest among the six children born to Venkalamadayan and his wife Arumukham. Born blind and with serious mentally retarded condition, Laxmanan needs to be carried if he has to move for anything. Venkalamadayan is old and looks tired but he has been very content and never complained about his fate or the plight of his six children, all retarded and disabled.
Venkalamadayan’s family live in V*, a small village in the Ramnad district of Tamil Nadu. V* is 31 km away from Manamadurai and 28 km from the TLM Hospital* at Dayapuram, Tamil Nadu.
The first born son, Veluchami, is more than 40 years old and needs help to walk. He is blind and has neurological disorders. He had gone to the village school up to fourth class. After he was ten, he began to tumble and fall down as he walked. His parents soon realized that their son has been losing vision and developing some other strange sickness. Veluchami’s younger brother too gained similar symptoms later and became invalid like his brother. A couple of years ago he passed away, reducing a little bit of the struggle his parents had. The third one is Muthulaxmi. She is 35 years old and can only sit where she is placed by her parents. Pandiraj, the fourth one is partially blind and is 33 years old. He had studied up to eighth standard. Pandiraj is married and has three children. Now he was met with an accident on the road and was away in a hospital. His younger son, when we visited the village, was sleeping on the floor, in between in his uncle and aunty. The next child, Gandhimati is 30 years according to her parents, and she is invalid like Laxman.
The family owns an acre of land which is not suitable for paddy cultivation due to lack water or irrigation. Crops like maze, cotton and chilly are grown and at times unexpected rains spoil the crop. Winning ‘daily bread’ for all the eight members of the family was too much of a tough task for them. Venkalamadayan and Arumukham take turns going to the field while all their adult children need to be attended always at home.
CADIP-I * project in the district had brought in some changes to Venkalamadayan’s family too. The CADIP staff, who had identified the family, arranged transportation and took all the six members of the family to the assessment and Identity Card distribution camp held at the nearby town. Through the disability identity cards, five of them were further assisted to apply for the government benefits. All of them began to get a disability grant of Rs.400 each from the government. Money orders come home month after month and now after the death of one of them, four of them are receiving a total of Rs.1600 per month. Moreover, by networking with another NGO, the CADIP staff could get the provision of two wheelchairs for the family. For them, taking those wheelchairs on lap to the village by motorcycle on the long stretches of the road, did not seem to be a trouble but a joy of serving them. Venkalamadayan and his wife are happy for this timely intervention by CADIP team in their family.
If you would like to strengthen the arms of Venkalamadayan (lessen his struggles) the author can get you connected to the TLM or the family.
Philipose Vaidyar
Philipose.Vaidyar@tlmindia.org
