Odisha woman’s long distance walk for pension goes viral, causing outrage
text_fields
Jharigaon, Odisha: A footage emerged on Thursday showed a frail old woman walking for kilometres in Odisha to collect her pension.
She was seen walking with the support of a broken chair as a prop in the scorching heat, causing widespread outrage.
The 70-year-old Surya Harijan , belonging to the Jharigaon block of Nabrangpur district of Odisha, was filmed taking the long distance walk on April 17.
Surya Harijan is very poor and has next to nothing to support herself except a pension.
Her elder son is a migrant labourer working away in another state.
She is staying at her younger son's, who ekes out by help grazing other people's cattle. His family owns no land and lives in a hut.
Upon arriving at the bank, she was told that she would not be able to take home pension as her thumb impression was not working.
The manager of the State Bank of India where she is holding an account said her ‘broken fingers’ were giving troubles.
"Her fingers are broken, so she is facing trouble withdrawing money. She has been given ₹ 3,000 manually from the bank. We will resolve the problem soon," the SBI manager reportedly said.
Meanwhile, the village Sarpanch promised of making arrangement for helping such helpless people with pension.