Living in penury, family seeks nod for euthanasia

Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, February 4

A family of Guruharsahai last week wrote to the Prime Minister to seek “permission for euthanasia”. Manohar Lal of Guruharsahai and his wife Shashi Bala have two sons and a daughter but all their children are differently abled since birth.

The family has no source of income. Whatever resources they had have dried up over the time, forcing them to live a life of penury. All their efforts to seek help have come to a naught.

“We have been reeling under abject poverty for the last 33 years,” said Manohar. He said a few years ago, after a lot of effort, the state government had sanctioned his family a pension of Rs 500 per month, which he alleged was not only meager for the family, it also didn’t reach in time.

The eldest of his children, Gagandeep, is 33 years old, followed by Punita and Ankush who are 28 and 24 years old, respectively, he said.

Manohar said when the children were small, their situation was still manageable but now, it had become difficult to take care of their daily needs. “I somehow managed to get my younger son educated till Grade X with the hope that he might get some job but that didn’t materialise,” he said.

Manohar said earlier, he had a small business but since he had to give a lot of time to his children, he suffered losses and now, the financial deficit on account of loans had assumed large proportions.

He said recently, Guruharsahai DSP Lakhvir Singh had offered him Rs 5,000. Two Assistant Sub-Inspectors and some constables accompanying him, too, had contributed. However, he said, unless a permanent solution was evolved to generate a regular income, his family would not be able to sustain.