Odisha: 70-year-old woman walks miles barefoot with support of broken chair to collect pension money

Nabarangpur (Odisha) [India], April 21 (ANI): A disturbing occurrence in Odisha where a 70-year-old woman was seen travelling barefoot for several kilometres before stopping at a bank to pick up her pension.

According to a video that surfaced on social media, the frail woman was seen walking barefoot with the support of a broken chair in the scorching heat. The incident happened in the Jharigaon block of Nabrangpur district of Odisha on April 17.
The elderly woman, Surya Harijan, comes from a destitute home. Her older son works as a migrant labourer in a different state. She stays with her younger son’s family and he makes his living grazing other people’s cattle. The family has no land to plough and lives in a hut.

The lady went to the bank to get the pension but was told that her thumb did not match the record and was forced to return home.

Reacting to the incident, the bank manager claimed that she is facing trouble in withdrawing money because of her “broken fingers” and the bank is working to resolve the problem.

“Her fingers are broken, so she is facing trouble withdrawing money. She has been given Rs 3,000 manually from the bank. We will resolve the problem soon,” said the Bank manager Anil Kumar Mehar.

The Sarpanch of her village also said that they have discussed listing such helpless people in the village and providing pension money to them.