Kendrapara: A man here has turned a Good Samaritan for a poor widow’s family. Diploma Engineer Bikash Kumar Sia, (29), a resident of Tangatalia in Rajnagar block, who is working as Safety Officer at the Al Shirawi Contracting Co LLC in UAE, is providing Rs 3,000 per month to a poor widow who had been struggling to survive with her four children and was taking shelter at a neighbour’s house.
In February, Bikash sent Rs 3,000 to the poor woman to help her maintain her family.
Orissa POST had published a report about the widow December 13, 2018 under the headline ‘Homeless widow struggles to feed kids.’
“When I came to know from the media about Sebati Mohapatra, 40, the wife of the late Kailash Mohapatra of Srirampur village in Pattamundai block, who has three daughters and a son, I decided to send her money every month,” said Bikash Kumar Sia, the son of Sachidananda Sia.
Kailash Mohapatra, the husband of Sebati Mohapatra, had left the village and was working as a plumber in a construction company. But he fell down from a building and died in Hyderabad in 2013. Due to lack of money the woman was unable to bring her husband’s body from Hyderabad to her village. The death of her husband came as a huge blow to her.
Sebati had been maintaining her children by working in the neighbourhood. She could not repair her thatched house and had been taking shelter with her four children in the house of fellow villager Baburam Mohapatra.
Sebati could not provide education to her three daughters and son who were studying in a local school.
Her eldest daughter Jasasree Mohapatra, (16), and second daughter Rinushree, (14), was studying in Class X at RC High School, Srirampur. Her third daughter Binushree was studying in Class VI and son, Soumyakanta, was studying in Class V at the Ramchandra Nodal UP School.
Although Sebati applied for a pucca house as she met all the guidelines for it, and also brought her plight to the attention of the Collector and the BDO, she could not get her name in the priority list for a house.
“I spoke to a local journalist of Pattamundai and told him that I wanted to help Sebati and her family. I told him that I would send Rs 3,000 a month to her and also fund her children’s education. I also promised to provide Rs 15,000 to help her construct a house,” said Bikash.
When Bikash’s Rs 3,000 reached Sebati, tears rolled down her eyes. She thanked Bikash for helping her family and praised his humanitarian gesture.
“As a human it is my duty to help others. I have not done anything extraordinary. I did not even inform my parents about helping Sebati and her kids. But when they came to know, they praised me,” Bikash said.
PNN
