Sonamura, Nov 1: At an age when most people depend on their families for care and comfort, nearly 100-year-old visually impaired Chandramanik Noatia and 62-year-old Bishwapati Noatia are left to depend on each other for survival. The two elderly residents of Kalikhola village under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), near Kathalia Bazar, are now struggling to arrange even their daily meals amid alleged delays in receiving their monthly social pensions.
The two have been living together in a small hut beside a banyan tree for several years. Although they are not husband and wife, they have become each other’s only support in the difficult years of old age. Both have severe mobility difficulties and depend on walking sticks to move around.
Each receives a monthly pension of Rs 2,000, which remains their only source of financial support. However, irregular payments have reportedly left them without money for days. With little choice, they visit nearby shops and markets, offer incense and seek small financial assistance from shopkeepers and local residents to arrange food.
Their situation took a difficult turn recently when they visited a bank in Kathalia to enquire about their pending pension payments but returned empty-handed, according to local accounts. With no money even to afford the vehicle fare, the two reportedly decided to walk from Kathalia towards Barpathari in search of temporary shelter at the house of an acquaintance.
Their journey, undertaken with the support of walking sticks and each other’s company, reflects the hardship faced by two elderly people who have little to fall back on. For them, the monthly pension is not an additional benefit but the only means of meeting their basic needs.
Their plight raises questions about the timely delivery of social welfare benefits to elderly and vulnerable beneficiaries. A pension of Rs 2,000 can mean little if it does not reach those who depend on it when they need it most. For Chandramanik and Bishwapati, a delay in payment can mean another day of uncertainty over their next meal.
