Sashi G was an ordinary 59-year-old coconut climber, who is partially paralysed. Sashi was bed-ridden after a fall from a coconut tree 18 years ago in Thiruvananthapuram. Over the years, his right arm and leg were left paralysed and he could walk only slowly.
His house was in the rural outskirts of the city. After his poor health conditions, he pleaded his village panchayat for a three-wheeler so he could start a small business. Soon he was reminded that there is just a narrow trail outside his house for a road.
As his pleads for new roads were laughed at by the fellow villagers, he started digging one. “The Panchayat told me there is no point of giving you a vehicle as you are paralysed. They assured me a road which never happened,” Sashi said.
Six hours every day, Sashi with his pick-axe has been digging away at a plateau that people were forced to climb. The result of his will-power was incredible: 200-meter ‘kaccha’ road, wide enough for small vehicles.
“I just kept digging because people thought I couldn’t. I thought if I kept digging, I will get a road and it will also be physiotherapy,” Sashi told NDTV.
“Even if the panchayat doesn’t give me a vehicle, at least people will have a road in the future,” he says.
Neighbours are grateful towards Sashi as it cut off a heck of troubles for everyone in the locality.
These are instances of government ignorance. Although he will be done digging this road in the coming month, there are no signs of panchayat giving him a three-wheeler.
At one point while sharing his story with NDTV, Sashi tears up. His wife starts weeping too, anxious about their future. “I begged him not to dig like this. If something happened to him again, we won’t have any money to treat him. We are heavily in debt. Now everyone talks about the road being built but what about us?”
