With no money, Bhopal woman forced to mortgage mangalsutra amid COVID-19 lockdown

With no money, a woman who used to sell prasad outside a temple in Bhopal claims she was forced to mortgage her mangalsutra in order to feed her family amid the coronavirus lockdown.

Kaushaliya Patil told that she sold her mangalsutra for Rs 5,000 as her business took a hit due to the closure of the temple because of COVID-19 spread.

"I have a hope that devotees again will throng the temple. But, if the situation does not change, hunger will kill us if not coronavirus. My husband is also paralysed. I have now sold my mangalsutra for Rs 5,000 to feed the family," she told .

"My son works at the petrol pump. He gets a very little salary from which I am able to run the household," she added.

Patil resides in a slum which is just a few meters away from the Vidhan Sabha secretariat.

Recently, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched Street Vendor Registration Portal and Mukhyamantri Shahri Path Vyavsayi Utthan Yojana. The state government also transferred Rs 300 crore to urban local bodies.

The Centre has also launched a special credit facility amounting to a total of Rs 5,000 crore that will provide these needy vendors Rs 10,000 as initial working capital.

( With inputs from ANI )