FOR nearly 20 years, a small home at Makoi HART was where 64-year-old Kamlesh Lata and her children lived.
Today, that home is gone, and her new reality is a bus shelter at the nine miles bus stop, next to Bhawani Dayal Arya College in Nakasi.
Since October, Ms Lata and her 36-year-old son, Amitesh Ram, have been sleeping at the bus shelter after being told to leave their former home following complaints from neighbours about her son’s behaviour.
Recalling how her life changed, Ms Lata said she had little choice but to move out.
“I was staying at Makoi HART for about 20 years,” she said.
“This boy was making a lot of trouble, and the neighbours were telling the HART office about the problems inside the house.
“The HART office told us to move out.”
With nowhere else to go, the bus shelter has become their temporary home, leaving Ms Lata to find ways to manage even the most basic daily needs.
Each morning, she makes her way to Nakasi Market to bathe before returning to the bus shelter.
“We go to the market, where I pay $1 to use the washroom. They told me I could come and use it.”
They get by through the generosity of passers by.
Behind her difficult circumstances is a life marked by family separation and loss.
Ms Lata said she had separated from her husband, who had since remarried.
An only child, both her parents are also deceased, leaving her without close family members she could turn to for support.
She has three children, one of whom has died.
Her married daughter, who lives separately, visits her on Tuesdays and Fridays.
She is now appealing to the Government for assistance to secure proper housing and move away from the bus shelter.
