NEW DELHI, August 23: For the outside world, the four women and a boy who died at the Asha Kiran Home for Mentally Handicapped in Rohini do not exist. Their families had already abandoned them, their presence erased from human memory even when they are alive. After their death four of the five had to be cremated by the officials from the Home. Even after repeated messages regarding their illness and then their death, there was no word from their families.According to the staff at the home, the families were all reasonably prosperous. ``When they were brought in we were surprised that these people could not afford to take care them. They looked like they could afford to employ at least a nurse,'' says a caretaker.
Ironically, the poor seem be more accommodative. The only victim who was cremated by her family was the 22-year-old Ragini who was taken away by her family when she was ill. Her family, belonging to a labourer who lives in Sultanpuri, wanted to take her to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in the morning, but Ragini was unfortunately dead by 8 am on Saturday.
But for how long? Waiting for death seems to make the living very restive.
``Then these people decide that as there is a government Home, why not use free facilities and put these people here,'' he adds.
As a result while the home was set up for about 300 inmates there are now 470 inmates. ``They come with their children and we cannot say no to the families. Their problem is understandable, these children require special care which a normal family cannot provide,'' says Gita Sagar, director, Delhi Social Welfare Department.
After waiting for the families for as long as they could keep the bodies, the officials of the home cremated them. Says M.S. Chauhan, joint director, Social Welfare Department, ``We kept the bodies hoping that their families may turn up eventually. They never did, so we conducted the last rites.''
But he points out that this is not strange. ``It is very normal. No one bothers to cremate the people who die here. We have experienced this before too,'' he says.
One of the caretakers at the dormitory finds it appropriate that the cremation of these people should be conducted by the only friends they have. ``We understand them well, because they cannot talk so it is only by intuition that we help them. It is only fair that we should see to their last rites.''
First to die among the four inmates was Anju Bala, 22, at 5 am on Friday due to unknown reasons. The second was Seema, 27, at 11 am on Friday due to epilepsy. The third was Dhani, 40, at 1 pm on Friday due to cardiac arrest. The fourth was the only boy Satish, 12, who died at 11 pm on Firday due to unknown reasons. The last to die was Ragini on Saturday.
Gita Sagar feels that there should be more homes like these. ``This is the only home in all of North India for the mentally retarded. We have only one doctor to take care of all the 470 patients and the out patient department.''
The initial proposal envisaged three doctor for setting the Home. But when the Delhi Government approved it, the Home had only one doctor. In this case, when there was one death at every six-hour interval, the only doctor available was not on duty. The duty ends at 5.30 pm and four of the five deaths took place when there were only nurses present to help.
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