Remember the ‘helpless’ tribal man from Odisha who walked for 10 km carrying his wife’s body on his shoulders? The pictures and videos of Dana Majhi carrying his wife body have gone viral on social media last year. The incident shook the nation’s conscience.
Do you know how he looks now? He owns lakhs.
Yes, you read it right. First a house, then a wife, and now a motorbike.
His life took a turn after he received a slew of aides from many donors including the Prime Minister of Bahrain, Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa. He now owns a house and a motorbike. Majhi not only owns a house in his village but his three daughters are also studying in a residential school in Bhubaneswar.
After hitting the headlines, the Kalahandi resident has remarried, the administration, often considered insensitive to people’s plight, came to his aid and got a house allotted to him under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Awas Yojana that is under construction. He got financial aid from donors, including Rs 9 lakh from Bahraini Prime Minister. Other individuals and organizations also chipped in.
He had earlier received an assistance of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10,000 every month for the education of his daughters from Sulabh International. The Sulabh International had deposited fixed deposits in Majhi’s bank account which will mature in 2021.
He did not have a bank account earlier, but now has sizeable fixed deposits. He recently arrived on the same street, which he had walked with his wife’s body tightly wrapped in cloth after being unable to pay for a transport in August last year, on a brand new Honda bike that he bought from a showroom after paying Rs 65,000.
All this and more has evidently helped Majhi to dream big. “He (Majhi) told me he has a new house and now needs a motorcycle for going around,” Manoj Agarwal, the owner of the Bhawanipatna Honda showroom, said. For the moment, Majhi is more concerned that he does not know how to ride a motorbike and has to sit behind his nephew.