SANGUEM: Senior Citizen, Kushawati Gaonkar from Kazur village, in Sanguem who was receiving assistance under the Goa government’s Griha Aadhar scheme, has stopped receiving it for the last five years. She used to receive the regular monetary benefits under the scheme between 2013 to 2019. But since 2020, the allowance suddenly stopped without any intimation to Kushawati. The reason --the Village Panchayat found that another woman by the same name was living in the village.
When the Griha Aadhar benefits of Rs 1500 suddenly stopped, though a woman of grit and fighting Goan spirit, Kushawati was shattered that her assured source of sustenance was stopped. Still she waited for one year, thinking that it would come. Thereafter she approached the then MLA Prasad Gaonkar at least four times, but no help was forthcoming. After the 2022 Goa Assembly election she approached Subhash Phaldesai who incidentally became the Social Welfare minister, but Kushawati says that despite meeting him three times, she has not got her allowance.
Kushawati Gaonkar, battered by time and hard work, is distraught and is almost on the verge of losing hope. She told O Heraldo, “I have two sons, both are unemployed. Plus I have my grandchild who is 10 years old. I support all of them by growing vegetables. But I find it extremely difficult to go to the market to sell the vegetables that I grow. How do I support them now?”
Since she is touching 70 years, she narrates how nearly every month she falls sick. “I do not have money to go to the doctor. I’m desperate, I do not know how to manage. I don’t feel like asking money from people."
“I’m appealing to the chief minister to help me. I’m about to lose my sanity. So many years I have battled this situation. I can’t bear it any longer,”Kushawati Gaonkar
Nilima Gaonkar, daughter-in-law of Kushawati narrates how twice they visited the Social Welfare office in Panjim. They were asked to write an application, which they wrote out with the help of one staffer who assured that the money would start coming. But nothing happened even they wrote out a second application and made several phone calls to the Social Welfare office.