A 40-year-old tribal man who did not have a ration card died in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district, PTI reported on Friday. His wife alleged that Rajendra Birhor died of hunger.
Shanti Devi said her husband was suffering from jaundice and the family did not have money to buy food and medicines. Birhor was taken to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi in June. The doctors prescribed some medicines and sent him home without admitting him, Devi alleged, according to The Times of India. The family belong to the endangered Birhor tribe, and live in Nawadih village in Mandu block.
However, Block Development Officer Manoj Kumar Gupta, who visited Birhor’s house after his death on Wednesday, said the man died of illness and not starvation. Gupta confirmed that the family did not have a ration card though. “We are looking into why the family was not enlisted to avail subsidised ration being provided by [the] government,” he told PTI.
The incident comes two weeks after Chintamani Malhar, another 40-year-old Birhor man, allegedly died of starvation in the same block. Malhar’s son Videshi had alleged they had nothing to eat for several days.
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