Battling cancer, poor labourer seeks help

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, January 11

Suffering from blood cancer, life has become a nightmare for 30-year-old father of four daughters who are all below the age of nine years.

Dalit labourer from Gujran village Jaswinder Singh has spent Rs 4 lakh on the treatment by taking loans.

His wife works as a maid at four houses and earns around Rs 2,000 per month, but she has to pay Rs 1,545 as monthly installment of a loan.

The family of six has one room for a house. When The Tribune visited them on Friday, their eldest daughter Manjot (9) was in school, while the younger three were at home. They share accommodation with the cattle as they don’t have other covered space.

After his condition deteriorated, the family first took Jaswinder Singh to the Sangrur Civil Hospital, then to other hospitals in Patiala and Chandigarh. Due to lack of funds, the family shifted to Ayurvedic medicine, but now that is also becoming unaffordable for them.

“Spending Rs 12,000 per month on my medicine is impossible. I have not worked for the past two years. Jasvir works hard, but we survive on the mercy of villagers, who give us wheat and other things,” said Jaswinder.

A Class VIII passout, Jaswinder is neither aware about the CM cancer relief fund nor other beneficial schemes.

“I request the Punjab Government and NGOs to help us as we are not aware of any scheme of the government,” he added.

Though his father Ajaib Singh, who also works as a labourer, has taken many loans for him and trying his level best to save his son, now he is also unable to do so as his mother Balvir Kaur has been admitted to a Patiala hospital with a heart problem.

“I am unaware about his case. I will depute my staff to visit the family and provide all possible help to them,” said Dr Arun Gupta, Sangrur Civil Surgeon.

Spent Rs 4 lakh on treatment 

• Dalit labourer from Gujran village Jaswinder Singh (30), who is suffering from blood cancer, has spent Rs 4 lakh on the treatment by taking loans.
• His wife works as a maid and earns Rs 2,000 per month, but she has to pay Rs 1,545 as monthly installment of a loan.
• “We came to know that my husband is suffering from cancer one and a half years ago. Since then, we have been taking loans from villagers and relatives. Now, they have stopped lending money to us," said Jasvir Kaur, his wife.