Without toilet and water, kids and women suffer no end

The venue where the event of saree distribution for mothers of Bhagyalakshmi beneficiaries, had a pandal which barely seemed to contain the heat. At around 10.30, the Krishnaraja Boulevard saw thousands of women getting down from buses, with their children in tow, and marching towards the grounds opposite to Maharaja college, with great discipline.

Though, few mothers thanked the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa for the scheme profusely on the stage, others didn’t seem to share the exact feeling with their counterparts.
Reason: absence of few basic necessities like toilets and clean drinking water for a good 25,000 people, majority of them women.

Surprisingly, some of the participants could even recollect the ‘good arrangements’ made by the BJP when a mega convention was held here few months ago. “Last time, when they brought us here for the convention, they had provided with water bottles and food packets,” said a mother, who wasn’t sure if the sintex water tank installed at the venue had water that was safe for her child.

With the bonds being distributed to about 17,045  mothers out of 53,200 beneficiaries, the venue was chock-a-block with toddlers, children and women. While some were told by the officers in their taluk to bring the child along, few had no option since there were no caretakers at home. “I couldn’t have left the child since most women from my village have come to attend the event,” said Padma, a mother of two, and a resident of Hunsur.

 A worried look writ large on the faces of women, just as the organisers announced lunch was arranged at different wedding halls across the city. “Now, having a decent lunch and feeding children too, will be a bigger ordeal,” said Shivaganga, who hails from Hinkal.