No Pension, No Transport: Supporting an Elderly Couple Through Lockdown
An elderly couple with no children and failing health depended entirely on a small government pension collected 16 km away — until the lockdown cut them off from it completely.
Bachuli and her husband are 70 and 79 years old, living together in a one-room house in Betalghat block with no children of their own. Both live with health conditions that keep them from working. Their only income has been a modest old-age pension of Rs. 1,200 a month, which has to be collected in person from a bank 16 kilometres away.
When the nationwide lockdown began, the pension payments stopped for a period, and even once the government resumed them, restrictions on public transport — including specific rules limiting elderly people’s movement to slow the spread of COVID-19 — made it impossible for the couple to collect what they were owed.
Neighbours helped where they could, but as the lockdown strained everyone’s finances, that support became harder to sustain. A member of a local Vimarsh Women’s Group learned of the couple’s situation and reached out to Vimarsh on their behalf.
Vimarsh’s team visited the couple at home and found them frightened and overwhelmed. Since then, Vimarsh has continued providing them with regular ration support, along with the assurance that help would keep coming.
What changed
Ongoing ration support provided to the couple since their situation was identified; connected to Vimarsh's continued support network.