All that 23-year-old Joyma Teli ever wanted was to give her family two square meals a day. But as a labourer in the tea industry, even that was denied to her.
Joyma, who worked at Dalsinghpara tea garden, 7 km from here, died at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) at dawn today after battling 70 per cent burns for 26 days. She had set herself on fire on February 9, when the management of the garden failed to distribute wages among the workers, leaving the young mother of two with no money to feed her children.
“The garden management should take full responsibility for her death. Not only did they fail to distribute wages, they also abandoned the garden on February 11, lying to the workers that they were going away to get the cash,” said Prabhat Mukherjee, the general secretary of the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers.
Joyma was initially admitted to the subdivisional hospital at Alipurduar. Doctors there had referred her to NBMCH. Her husband, Jitbahan, had sold his poultry, goats and even his bicycle to pay for her treatment.
“I did not have the money to admit her to the medical college till the Family Planning Association of India’s branch office at Kalchini came forward. What will I do now with my six-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter,” Jitbahan asked.
S. Sarkar, one of the doctors attending to Joyma, said the young woman could not be saved despite their best efforts.
Source > The Telegraph
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