LITTLE do we realise the severe trauma that surviving burn victims go through. The suffering is so much that many of them wished that they were better dead than alive. Regrettably, due to the spate of violence we have witnessed in the last five weeks, their numbers are accreting every day. What the country has in its hands are more disabled and more infirm people who cannot get by on their own.

And that is what begs the question. A sad aspect of violence anywhere is that the worst sufferers are the poorer and marginalised sections of the society. And, as a report carried in the leading Bangla daily yesterday exposed, they are in the worst state of pecuniary privations. And there appears to be no planned approach by the government to address the plight of these unfortunate people. What to speak of the surviving petrol bomb attack victims of the ongoing violence, a large number of burn victim survivors of 2014 political violence have not received any substantial help from the government to tide over their difficulty. And it is not the question of just only the victim. Most of them were earning members of their family who have lost their only source of income.

We would like to suggest that the government take up appropriate policy immediately to address the issue. The victims should be treated at par with any other disabled person and afforded the necessary assistance that other disabled are entitled to including appropriate employment and regular source of earning.