Credit: DH photo
This elderly woman doesn’t have a house to live in and has no guarantee of dailywage work or next meal. The woman in question is not even eligible for housing schemes for she is a Sindagi Town Municipal Council (TMC) member. And there’s too much talk about women’s empowerment and reservation in local bodies.
Mahadevi Bhimshya Naikodi (80), a member of ward 23 of Sindagi TMC in Vijayapura district, lives in a thatched hut on a newly formed residential layout.
Mahadevi may be left to fend for herself on streets soon as she is being pressured by the concerned persons to vacate the place.
Her son Mahantesh made her contest the local body polls and ensured her victory in ward 23, which has a high number of illiterates.
He, however, migrated to Maharashtra for work soon after.
Two more sons of Mahadevi have abandoned her.
She eked out a living on the honorarium for attending the general meetings of TMC and an old age pension. But she’s stopped receiving honorarium and pension for the past one year.
These days, Mahadevi is surviving from the food offered by Good Samaritans or temple prasada.
“Mahadevi is living in a thatched hut on layout road. She is getting pressure from the people concerned to leave the place. There are several housing schemes for the homeless, the TMC
should allot a house to Mahadevi from one such scheme,” Eranna Metri, a resident of ward 23, said.