Drab Deepavali for family with disabled children

MALAYSIA Nanban highlighted the plight of a family in Penang with three mentally disabled children who had little money to buy clothes and cakes for Deepavali. 

The report said S. Legendran, 16, Kumaran, 21, and Kasturi, 23, had been handicapped since birth. 

It added that while their parents had bought them Deepavali clothing at a night market costing between RM5 and RM8 each, they had no hope of buying cakes for their children for festival.  

According to the report, their mother, K. Saroja, 50, works in houses nearby as a maid to support the family. Both she and their father, who is a Penang Municipal Council worker earn RM700 monthly, are worried about the future of their children. 

The daily and Tamil Nesan carried Deepavali messages from MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, his deputy Datuk S. Subramaniam and other community leaders. 

Samy Vellu, in his message, urged the community to create a new generation of people to improve the political and economic status of Indians.  

He said this was needed for Indians to compete with other communities in the rapidly developing nation. 

The community, he added, should continuously study ways and means to move with the times, urging them to make full use of the business opportunities provided by the Government.