70yr Old Woman Walks Barefoot to Collect Pension
A viral video showed us a 70-year old woman walking barefoot in the summer sun to collect her pension from the bank. Know more about her story.
Recently, a video of a frail 70-year-old woman has gone viral. She was seen walking barefoot for several kilometres with the support of a broken chair to collect her pension from a bank in Orissa.
The incident took place on April 17 in Jharigaon block of Nabrangpur district of Odisha. The woman was Surya Harijan. She was seen walking with difficulty in the hot sun and heat. After so much struggle, on reaching the bank, Harijan was told that her thumb impression did not match the records and was hence forced to return home without her pension money. The manager at the SBI, Jharigaon branch, said, “Her fingers are broken, so she is facing trouble withdrawing money. She has been given Rs 3,000 manually from the bank. We’ll resolve the problem soon.”
Harijan has 2 sons. The elder son works as a migrant labourer in another state and the younger one makes his living by grazing other’s cattle (shepherd). Harijan lives with her younger son. The family has no farmland and lives in a hut. Despite government schemes being in place to assist needy citizens, Surya Harijan has not been able to avail of the benefits due to her various issues.
Previously, Harijan was provided with pension money in cash. However, now the system has changed, and now the money is being transferred online to her account. As per the bank authority, Surya's left thumb impression (fingerprint) sometimes does not match and it becomes a problem to pay the pension amount to her. Reportedly, she has not received her pension for the last four months, and for physical presence, she needs to go to the bank.
However, Surya is too weak, and cannot even walk on her own. She used a chair as a helping stick to go to the bank. Despite her frequent requests at the panchayat office for help, nobody has helped her and all efforts have gone waste. However, the local administration has now promised to give all the facilities to the old woman and provide pension at her doorstep. As this incident came to light, the Sarpanch of the village said that they have thought about such underprivileged people in the village and discussed the means to provide pension money to them.
