Palamu: The Palamu district administration has taken cognisance of an ETV Bharat report that exposed the grim reality of Dhodrahi village in Jharkhand's Palamu district, where a large number of families have lost their male breadwinners, earning it the description of a "village of widows."
Located under Huntar Panchayat in Ramgarh block, Dhodrahi has around 25 households, of which nearly 20 to 21 are headed by widowed women. During a visit by the ETV Bharat team, residents said many of the village's men had died after contracting tuberculosis while working in stone quarries in Karvandia, Rohtas district of Bihar. A June 11 report described how it is difficult to spot a man in Dhodrahi village.According to villagers, migration for quarry work began around 2013–14, while deaths linked to TB started surfacing in 2016–17. Interestingly, residents said the disease primarily affected male workers, with no confirmed TB cases reported among women and children in the village.
With the deaths of the men, many families were pushed into poverty. Widowed women now sustain their households through daily wage labour and work at brick kilns, while several children have also been forced into labour. Over the years, some families migrated after losing their male members, leaving behind a village largely inhabited by women and children.Following the report, officials from the Child Protection Unit have begun collecting family-wise data. The administration's immediate objective is to identify eligible children and link them to government welfare programmes.District Child Protection Officer Mohammad Zishan Ahmed said he took note of the ETV Bharat report, following which the administration initiated action. "Steps are being taken to enrol village children in the sponsorship scheme. A survey is currently underway in the village, and meetings have been held with locals. Discussions have also taken place with the local ward commissioner, who has been asked to ensure that the children's documents are updated so they can be linked to the sponsorship scheme," Ahmed said.Under the sponsorship scheme, eligible children receive financial assistance of ₹4,000 per month until they complete their education or attain the age of 18 years. The scheme, initially introduced for children orphaned during the COVID-19 pandemic, is available to orphaned children from families with annual incomes up to ₹72,000 in rural areas and ₹96,000 in urban areas. Benefits are available whether one or both parents are deceased, irrespective of social category.
