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Out of breath

  • 14/03/2004

Out of breath The shanties in Yamuna Pushta are packed tight. A dusty and torn curtain hangs over the entrance to Sabina's house. Trunks and cupboards leave little space for Sabina and her family. A kabadiwala has spread his polythene bags and plastic ware at their doorstep. A neighbour's goats roam nearby.

"This place is very cold because of Yamuna; I shiver even in my warm clothes. Sunlight does not reach our house,' she says. Her jobs at home are to wash clothes, clean utensils and fetch water from the community tap.

Sabina's father is a rickshaw-puller and her brother a kabadiwala. Sabina, who has been asthmatic since childhood, takes medicines given by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) near her home. An inhaler is an extravagance, she says. "We cannot afford it. It will cost what my father and brother earn in an entire day.'' She once persuaded her father to buy her an inhaler but some children stole it. "What a big waste,' says Sabina.

She used to visit Kasturba Gandhi Hospital near Delhi's Jama Masjid for treatment. Doctors gave her tablets and syrups and told her to take steam at the hospital if there was an emergency.

No national data on asthma in India is available but the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10 per cent to 15 per cent of 5- to 11-year-old children suffer from the disease in the country. A study done by the paediatrics department of National University of Singapore found that asthma is the most common chronic illness in that country in childhood. The Indian government hasn't bothered

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