A narrow street in East Delhi’s Mandawali village takes one to a dingy room where three minor sisters, who are believed to have died due to starvation, lived with their poor parents.
Neighbours said the family lived in abject poverty. The children ~ aged two, four and eight years ~ hardly got food two times a day. They had little fat on their bodies, according to the neighbours.
Savitri, a neighbour of the family, said: “The children appeared to be in a very bad shape. The two younger ones were suffering from dysentery. The family had moved into a small room only three days before the tragedy occurred on Tuesday.”
According to Savitri, the mother of the three girls, Beena, perhaps suffered from “some mental disorder”. “Beena’s husband, Mangal, a rickshaw-puller,was away from home to look for a job after his rickshaw was stolen when the tragedy struck”, another neighbour of the poverty-stricken family said.
One Satyaveer claimed that “Mangal was desperately looking for a job to sustain his family. He appeared more worried as his wife was mentally unstable.”
According to the Mangal’s landlord Bhagat Singh, the family was accommodated in a room after one of his friends Narayan made a request.
“Narayan is a very nice and helpful person. We agreed to allow Mangal’s family to occupy our room because of his being close to Narayan”, Bhagat Singh added. Some other people who knew Mangal said he had married Beena 10 years ago.
“He earned Rs 50-60 a day as a rickshaw-puller but spent a major part of his earnings on liquor.” they claimed. Mangal hails from Midnapore, West Bengal.
He came to Delhi almost 15 years ago to search for a livelihood, his neighbours informed. They said Mangal had not been spotted soon after he moved to a new room.
The news of his minor daughters which shook the capital was reported after they were taken to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital in an unconscious state.