By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Six-year-old Niranjan Sahu has spent the last four years tied up in an Orissa village. He was mentally challenged and his widowed mother had no money for his treatment. Help has finally come after district authorities stepped in and agreed to meet his medical expenses.
The boy developed a mental disorder and lost his power of speech after he fell from a height when he was two years old, Oriya newspaper Dharitri reported Monday. Niranjan lives with his mother Purnima, a daily wage labourer, in Haladi Basanta village in the coastal district of Jajpur, around 100 km from the state capital here.
Villagers have earlier had to rescue Niranjan after he accidentally fell into a well while his mother was away, the report said. Since then Purnima used to tie up the child either at home or at places she worked, district sub collector S.K. Mohanty told IANS.
She could not always keep a watch on his movements and that was why she started tying him up all the time, he said.
“We have sent the boy to Sriram Chandra Bhanja Medical (SCB) College Hospital at Cuttack for treatment today,” Mohanty said, adding that the administration would bear all his medical expenses.
“The administration has also decided to provide him a sum of Rs.200 per month. The widow has also been covered under the Antyodaya Yojana through which she will get 35 kg of rice at Rs.3 per kg,” he added.