 Nasseb Kaur with her grandchildren at Gehri Devi Mandir village in Bathinda. |
It is difficult not to meet the family of Naseeb Kaur and feel empathy for her. One of Naseeb’s son and her four grandchildren have lost one eye each. The reason is not far to seek, at least in the Malwa region. Contaminated water, seen as the prime factor behind the dreaded scourge of cancer, is so widespread in the area.
Naseeb, the mother of four sons, lost her husband, Gurdev Singh (66), in February this year. Gurdev was suffering from throat cancer. During a recent visit to her house in Gehri Devi Mandir village in Bathinda district, this correspondent came across three children who have lost one eye each. Meanwhile, a four-year-old girl came in rubbing one of her eyes, which was badly swollen. The fluid coming out of her eye was a testimony to her pain.
While talking to this correspondent, Naseeb could not stop her tears. It was painful when her eldest son, Raj Singh (43), lost his one eye in childhood. At that time, doctors in Patiala had advised them to get the eyeball removed as it was affected with cancer.
The life of the family had been smooth for a couple of years, but when her sons were blessed with children, the trouble reared its head again. Raj Singh, who himself was blind in one eye, was blessed with two sons, who are luckily normal.
Her second son Darshan Singh lost his son to eye cancer when he was three years old. He has two daughters, Kiran Deep Kaur (10) and Amrit Pal Kaur (4), who also had the same problem. A class IV student, Kiran Deep, had her eye removed while Amrit Pal is still suffering from the problem of extra skin, covering her eyeball.
Her third son, Joginder, has a son, Harman Deep Singh (11), a class VI student, whose eyeball was removed when he was one-year-old. Fortunately, the eight-year-old daughter of Joginder, Avneet Kaur, has not been affected by the disease.
The youngest son of Naseeb, Jagroop Singh, alias Motha, has two children, but his seven-year-old daughter Amandeep Kaur was also born with the same disease and one of her eyeballs shrivelled up when she was just one year old. Gratefully, his one-and-a-half-year-old son has not been affected.
Showing a huge pile of medical reports, issued from various private and government hospitals of Jalandhar, Patiala, Delhi, Bikaner, Amritsar, Faridkot and Chandigarh, she said despite all efforts, nothing had worked.
The members of the family said despite repeated representations to various parties, no leader had lent any help. Jagroop Singh said they had spent lakhs on the treatment of their children, but in vain. The land of the family has also been pledged to the banks and moneylenders.
