S. Kumar, a 35-year-old person with a disability, residing at the Perumbakkam Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) tenements, used to run a mobile tea shop to feed his family and educate his children. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he has been left without an income.
Despite his own problems, he and Sujatha Kandan, another person with a disability, have formed an association to help people with disabilities in the tenements.
There are 300 persons with disabilities living in the Perumbakkam TNSCB tenements, which is now a containment zone.
“Most of them are daily wage earners. All of them are dependent on the ₹1,000 maintenance allowance provided by the government,” said Mr. Kumar also known as ‘Maan’ Kumar who resides in block 128 in Perumbakkam.
Similar is the condition of Kalaimani, 34, another person with a disability, who has been left in the lurch as her husband does not have any job now and has been struggling financially. “From October last year, I have not got the maintenance allowance too. It is very hard to manage,” she says.
Meanwhile Ms. Sujatha and Mr. Kumar have been distributing grocery and other essentials items to persons with disabilities in the tenements. “We have been doing it with the help of sponsors. The relief material includes 20 kg of rice too,” said Ms. Sujatha.
She has also helped many persons with disabilities get their disability ID cards. “They will get the maintenance allowance only if they have the card and close to 50 of them did not have it,” she added.
