Molai Rajbar, aged 42, is on his death bed due to hunger and malnutrition, but neither the authorities nor the head of Panchayat (local village government) visited him. This poor man, who lives in a shattered hut with his mother, wife and children, never qualified for the Annapurna or Antodaya below poverty line (BPL) cards. He also pleaded with village and district authorities to get benefits from Indira Awaas Yojana (government poverty alleviation scheme) but was unsuccessful. Today, he is dependent on the village folks for food.

Molai lives in the Mohammadabad Gohana Vikas Khand area and has been without food for four days. He is unable to cook food at home and has no money to buy even one grain of food.  

Molai occupies only 2 bighas (unit of rural land measure, varies by State) of land, which he mortgaged for his mother, Tetri’s, treatment 3 years back. The village was unable to help in getting food grain from the ration shop for Molai, so they pressured the Block Development Office (district office) to give Molai ration from the Public Distribution System (PDS). But still, all these collective voices of the people could not do anything for Molai. For sustenance Molai started working in a brick kiln but what little money he could earn went towards his mother’s treatment. 

As a result, Molai and his family are starving and do not have a single rupee to buy food from the market.