Heat and Apathy

Heat wave-related deaths are not registered with any central or state disaster management agency and there is therefore no provision for compensation

- Md Asghar Khan

MUNNI Devi, 45, a resident of Kokar area in Ranchi, was a daily wage earner. Sometimes, when there was less work, she would take up odd rag-picking jobs. On June 18, after selling the garbage she had picked, she started walking back home at 4 PM.

"She felt dizzy and started vomiting. People from a nearby house offered her water. She collapsed and was rushed to RIMS (Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences), where she was declared dead," informs her sister Jhariyo Tirkey.

The deceased hailed from Gumla district and had moved to Ranchi to earn a livelihood, leaving behind her husband and two children. Now there is no earning member. Her brother Dinesh Tirkey has filed a case with the Sadar Police Station for want of compensation. The police say they are waiting for the post-mortem report.

Munni Devi is just another casualty of the brutal heat wave that Jharkhand is reeling under. However, like many others, she will not make it to the list of casualties who have died in the state due to the heat wave. No such list exists. And in the absence of any official list, providing compensation to the families of heat wave victims seems like a long shot.

The family of Mala Devi, 62, is not even hopeful of getting any compensation. A resident of Dumariya village in Godda block of Jharkhand, Devi died on June 16, the day the temperature touched 45.9 degree Celsius.

"My aunt was perfectly fine in the morning. At 12 noon, she started feeling unwell and said her throat had gone dry. She did not feel better even after sipping water, so we rushed her to the Sadar Hospital. But by the time we reached, she passed away," says her nephew Anant Jha.