In touching gesture, elderly destitute collect Rs 5 L for Ukd

In a humane gesture, a group 8,100 destitute elderly people in Bihar have managed to raise over Rs five lakh for Uttarakhand flood victims.
The senior citizens, who were themselves victims of devastating Kosi floods, hope this gesture will "repay the debt" to society which helped them overcome the 2008 tragedy.
Holding in their hand a little tin box for donations, these people from Bihar's three districts of Supaul, Darbhanga and Madhubani went in groups from door to door and from street to street in remote villages collecting from Re one to Rs 150.
Belonging to extremely modest backgrounds, they have accomplished a feat few would have expected of even the most well heeled individuals in urban India, a spokesperson from HelpAge India said.

The group of 8,100 destitute elders from 557 Elder Self Help Groups (ESHG) of HelpAge India managed to collect Rs 5.40 lakh which would be used for NGO's Uttarakhand relief and rehabilitation initiative.
The ESHG members are mostly farmer, who had lost their all during the 2008 Bihar floods and were recipients of HelpAge relief themselves.

Asked about the reason for taking such a task,62-year-old Siyaram Das from Madhubani District, said, "Hum issey guzar chukey hain. 2008 main jab barh aaye thi aur hamara sab kuch beh gaya tha, ghar-bar, khaaney tak ki liye kuch nahi tha, tab logo ne hamari maddad ki thi. (We have been through this. In 2008, the floods destroyed everything, our houses, our livelihood. We didn't even have food to eat. People then came forward and helped us).

"That's why we know what the people of Uttarakhand are going through, and we want to repay that debt, we want to help them," he said.
The entire amount was collected from the villagers only between July 20 and August 13 and a formal cheque would be handed over to HelpAge in Bihar on August 18, Manish Manohar, Project Coordinator of HelpAge India at Jhanjharpur in Madhubani district told PTI over phone.
"It was a marathon effort in a space of barely four weeks I am truly humbled by this experience," said Rajeshwar Devarakonda, Head of Social Protection and Emergencies, HelpAge India.