-- Adapted from an article in Prabhat Khabar, Deoghar, April 22, 2005

This article will raise two vital questions. First, why has the government failed to provide two square meals per day? The second, if it is not able to provide two square meals then why is the current party still in power? It is absurd to say that our country has adequate food grains in stock when people, like Mandu Ramani, have not had food for three days. The man lives in extreme poverty and has no employment opportunities. People like him feel blessed if they get to eat only rice. Unable to bear hunger, he and his family are talking about mass suicide.

Mandu Ramani is 70 years old, physically handicapped, and a resident of Singhpur Yogihidi village, Thadi Dulampur Panchayat, Deoghar District, Jharkhand State, India. He ate his last full meal on Ramnavmi, a Hindu festival, which was 12 days ago. It was a very hot day when we visited the Singhpur Yogihidi village and saw Mandu Ramani sitting in his hut made of hatch and mud. He was making jute rope, for which he is paid Rs 2 - 4 , and had been doing so for four days. There is not a grain of food in his house yet somehow, he manages to find some rice to eat once a day. He is living with his wife and two small children. One adult son, their sole bread-winner, died of a fatal disease. Furthermore, Mandu Ramani's wife earns Rs. 30  per month by working in some houses. This sum however, is spent in just a few days. Thus, the family has been living in such dire conditions.

 Mandu Ramani has approximately 20 square yards of land (too small to earn from it) with him and due to insufficient water for irrigation and the small size of his plot, he is not been able to cultivate that piece of land. Physically challenged, Mandu Ramani receives old-aged pension of Rs.100  per month however, to get the pension he must spend Rs. 50  in travel costs. The rest of the money is consumed in less than 4 days on food and medicine. The government has not given any of the family members Antodaya cards (poorest of poor ration cards). Mandu cried while narrating that he has been living as a physically handicapped man for over 35 years and that the government has not given him any benefits, only assurances. Currently what little he does have is insufficient. The family's hatched hut always floods in the monsoon season and only has one iron wok to cook with.

This is just one of the many hunger cases in the area. The majority of villagers are suffering in the same way and also have no water for irrigation. Their lands have been lying barren for years and the villagers are on the verge of starvation.

Mandu is still waiting for the authorities to come and help him and his family with various government-run schemes. He says that he will be forced to commit mass suicide if the situation continues and that it is better to die than to suffer in hunger and poverty. Now, we must what and see whether the State government will keep Mandu and his family alive.