From mud to hope: Sultanpur Lodhi widow's struggle after Punjab floods

With frail hands, sweat on her forehead and tears in her eyes, 65-year-old widow Bakshish Kaur digs through the thick layer of silt that has buried what little she owned - fragments of a life-long marked by hardships. The recent floods that ravaged Baupur village did not spare her either. Her modest two-room house, given to her by the village sarpanch as she could not afford on her own, now has mud and silt all around. Rebuilding for her seems a long and painful road ahead.

A month after the floods struck, she returned to a home recently. At the time of the disaster, Bakshish had already left as was advised by the sarpanch and was staying with her daughter in a nearby village in Sultanpur Lodhi. Now back, she sifts through and pulled out torn piece of a suit from the muck. She murmurs to herself in, “Oh ho, eh vi kharab ho gaya” (Oh no, even this is ruined).

The actual path to her home is still blocked due to stagnant water. With no other way, she had to break through the back wall just to enter. “After I got inside, I found the entire house filled with silt,” she says. Navigating through it is exhausting, yet she has been doing so tirelessly for the past three days.

The Tribune tetam also entered her home by through the broken wall. Inside, the scene was grim — thick silt covered every inch of the floor, and naked electricity wire dangled dangerously, posing a threat to anyone stepping in. Electricity in her house has been restored.

Inside the two cramped rooms are a rusted fridge, a folding bed, a single blanket, and a few damaged utensils — all that remains of her possessions. “I’m afraid to go in. There might be snakes or poisonous insects,” she says, her voice trembling with fear and fatigue.

Since she returns, she has been sleeping in the village gurdwara.

“My children were small when my husband died. I worked as a daily wager to raise them. Now my sons are daily wagers too. We don’t have much, and now this flood has thrown another task,” she says, eyes scanning the muddy floor for her other belongings. Her sons, she shares, have gone out working to earn for the family.

While talking, she finds a slipper buried under the mud. She sighs, picks it up gently, and says, “Bass hun eh safai kar laiye, ghar rehn laayak ho jaaye” (Let me just finish this cleaning… so the house can be livable again). Across Punjab, there are many like Bakshish Kaur who are silent survivors of nature’s fury.

SDM, Sultanpur Lodhi, Alka Kalia also stated that the Rural Development and Panchayat Department has been directed to identify roads and homes requiring silt removal. "Assistance will be provided to residents for the removal of silt," she added.