NEW DELHI, 27 August 2007 — In a country like India, where the majority is poor and starvation and malnutrition affect over half the population, the gravity of a starvation death is often confined to statistics. This would have been the case had the death of Neeru, 30, from starvation and her sisters — Dolly, 43, and Poonam, 41 — being near-death from severe malnutrition not hit the headlines.
Living in a rented house in Delhi’s Kalkaji neighborhood for about two decades while battling poverty and unemployment, the three sisters largely kept to themselves. Their mother passed away more than a decade ago soon after death of the father from blood cancer. Dolly is a graduate and Poonam has a diploma in fine arts. Dolly once worked as a receptionist at a hospital. Poonam was a lecturer at a polytechnic institute and Neeru worked with a private marketing agency.
Initial investigations reveal that Poonam, who had been the sole breadwinner for some time, lost her job six months ago. “Until now we have not been able to find out how they survived all these months,” police officer Onkar Singh said.
The police were compelled to force their entry into the sisters’ flat after neighbors complained of “unbearable stench” coming from there. Their neighbor, Arvind, became aware of the stench while parking his car outside their house a few days ago. “It has since become unbearable,” he said.
Their immediate neighbor and cousin, Sanjay Bali, was also unaware about their condition. “It was very painful as they are relatives, but we don’t know what happened. They cut off all social ties about a year ago and thwarted all our attempts to reach out,” he said.
Following a neighbor’s complaint, the police reached their residence on Saturday. When there was no response to their knocking at the door for about 15 minutes, the police decided to break it.
“On the third hammer strike on the door, Dolly came near the door and requested us not to damage it. But she again refused to allow us inside the house, which was stinking badly,” Singh said.
“On her refusal, we decided to use the hammer again. As we hit the door twice more, Dolly opened it and allowed us inside, but she tried to block our way when we tried to search the house for the source of the foul smell,” Singh said. But policemen moved in and were shocked to find Neeru’s decomposed body on the bed, while Poonam seemed near death, barely able to move.
“After entering the bedroom we found Neeru’s stinking and swollen body. It seemed she had died at least five days ago, possibly due to starvation,” Singh said. “When we asked Dolly about the matter, she was unable to speak and was gasping for breath. She asked for food through sign language. When neighbors brought food, she ate it with such gusto that it was apparent she had not eaten for days,” Singh said.
The surviving sisters were rushed to a private nursing home by neighbors and police. Neeru’s body was sent to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for a post-mortem.
Millions of Indians suffer from starvation despite food worth 580 billion rupees perishing every year at various stages of handling. A recent report of Asian Legal Resources Center (ALRC), a sister organization of the Asian Human Rights Commission, blamed the country’s “failing administrative system” suffering from “corruption” for this. It said: “Starvation and malnourishment are the direct result of the failing administrative system in India.”
