Yogesh Sadhwani
Sunaina Dophavkar (17) eyes are completely expressionless. Her tears have dried up and she seems completely at loss of words to explain her grief. The fifth standard pass has no clue what is to happen of her and her five siblings who have just been orphaned.
The Dophavkar family residing at Asgholi village in Guhaghar Taluka are talk of the entire district. Once an eight member family is now reduced to six, with the eldest living member being 17 years old. The lady of the house died a year ago due to cancer, while head of the family Bharat Ganu Dhopavkar died due to Phyan while he was fishing to fend his family. The six kids – Sunaina, Samiksha (16), Suraksha (12), Suchit (10), Sushmita (7) and Sadiksha (3) – are now orphaned and completely clueless about their future.
“My son left on November 11 morning. By 8 am some fishermen came back and told us that boat in which he was had overturned and he had gone down with it. The next day we found his body near Ranvi village located a little away from here,” explains Vijaya Dhopavkar, the kid’s grandmother. Their old grandmother is all the kids are left with now.
Neighbours explain that after their mother died, the kids somehow managed to stay afloat and pieced their life together. “They were very close to their father. Bharat would do almost anything for them. In fact he always wanted all his kids to go to school but because all but one refused to go, he did not push them,” said a neighbour. Except for seven year old Sushmita, none of the kids go to school. Sumit did go to school a couple of years ago but dropped out and now refuses to go anywhere near the school building.
“Had we been educated, life would not have been as tough. But in our village though there is a school till seventh grade, education is not a priority with most kids,” regrets Sunaina. She adds that government has given them a large chunk of the Rs 3 lakh compensation package and many others have helped them financially. “What is the point of getting the money when we have no clue as to what to do with it. We girls cannot go on a boat and Suchit is too young to go fishing. Most importantly, we do not have anybody we can look up to anymore,” said a sobbing Sunaina, while three year old Sadiksha stares at her eldest sister with a puzzled look.
Their grandmother says that some people have come forward to adopt the kids but she is no mood to give them away.
