Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, December 12 2010:
Despite the awareness programmes organized by the government, people who are cured from leprosy still faces discrimination from the family and the society.
Salam Mema (70) w/o Borbabu from Keibul Lamjao who is in the Leprosy hospital at Lei Ingkhol is one of them.
Mema and Borbabu have two sons and two daughters.
When she was 50, his husband married another woman.
Since then, she had been selling vegetables and other items in Chandel by taking them from Khwairamband and Kakching markets.
All of a sudden she developed symptoms of leprosy on her feet.
When she visited JN hospital for treatment, doctors there referred her to the Leprosy hospital at Lei Ingkhol, Chingmeirong.
After treatment in the hospital, she was cured of the disease.
Her daughters have married.
One of her two sons has been lost in Myanmar and one has settled in Churachandpur after his marriage.
When she went to attend her mother's last rites, her daughters asked her to settle with them.
But she refused to their proposal fearful of the discrimination she would face from the society.
She is now living in Lei Ingkhol earning money through craft works which she sells for ' 50 apiece.
A woman called Damu and local clubs and Meira Paibi organizations of the area are helping her by providing her food.
The Leprosy Society, Chingmeirong also presents her with gifts on the occasion of Ningol Chakkouba every year.
Volunteers of a local club submitted necessary documents to the Social Welfare for providing old age pension some years back.
But she has not received any pension till date.
She is also facing problems of getting drinking water as she cannot go to fetch water from the foot hill.
She has to buy a bottle of water at ' 5.She also uses pond and rain water when she is not able to afford buying potable water.
Laishram Panthoi (70) another women who has been cured of the disease said that she is living on only one meal a day.
She has been at Lei Ingkhol since she was 22 years old.
She was married to a non Manipuri at Bongaigaon, Assam when she was 17 years old.
Her father is Heikrujam Gourahari of Sagolband Meino Leirak.
Unknown to the society, the two old women are living a life in hell waiting their last breath.