Mumbai: A man, whose two daughters suffer from a muscular disease, has told the Supreme Court in a petition that he should either be given help or else allowed to commit suicide.
"I have no way to live in this world. Please help me with medical help to take care of them or grant me mercy killing. Or I have no idea except to commit suicide," says Mukhtar Ahmed Shaikh, the petitioner and the only bread-winner in the family.
Shaikh's two daughters, Mehfooz (26) and Khurshida (30), are afflicted with muscular dystrophy, a disease in which patient's muscles start degenerating. Over a period of time, the disease paralyses entire body of the person.
Mukhtar Shaikh, a resident of Dharavi, works as a labourer at a private firm and earns Rs 2000 per month.
"Two of my children suffer from muscular dystrophy. These patients can not escape death," the petition reads, stating further that Shaikh has no money to pay for the costly treatment for the two daughters.
Describing the miseries the family goes through daily, the petition states: "I am staying in a 90 sq ft room. We don't have toilet. I can not explain the hardship in taking care of them."
The petition also mentions that Shaikh himself is an asthma patients while his wife is suffering from cancer.
According to N R Paul, who lives in the same area and who drafted the petition at Shaikh's request, the family has had no help from any government agency or NGO so far.
Though the treatment at the government-run J J Hospital is subsidised, Shaikh can not afford it as he had to take his hapless daughters there in a taxi. "It alone costs Rs 400," Paul says.
Paul says that copies of the petition have been forwarded to the President, Prime Minister and Maharashtra Chief Minister and he is hopeful that it will elicit some positive response.
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