Eight months into her pregnancy, an 18-year old in Assam’s Hojai district has sought refuge in her maternal grandfather’s house, in a village more than seven kilometres away from her matrimonial home. Her husband, two brothers-in-law and father-in-law have all fled, fearing arrest in the Assam government’s crackdown against child marriage.
“She doesn’t eat, doesn’t sleep, sick with worry,” said her aunt while the girl sat on the porch of the house. The 18-year-old’s delivery is due in the first week of March. She is terrified to meet a doctor or make her way to hospital. “If I go, will they come after my family?” she asks.
Of the 2,763 people who have been arrested as of February 9, the highest number — 216 — has been from Hojai. With their husbands arrested or absconding, a sense of panic has taken grip, with young or expecting mothers too afraid to seek out the reproductive help they need.
The 18-year-old was dropped off at her grandfather’s home by her husband more than a week ago, the day the police began its crackdown on child marriages on February 3. She has also lost touch with the ASHA worker at her village and has not been in touch with the ASHA worker in her grandfather’s village.
At the small Doboka Community Health Centre, where the 18-year-old would have got her check-ups and delivery done, Dr Abu Sharif Akanda, Senior Medical and Health Officer, said, “Over the last week, every day, I have had one or two pregnant teenage girls come in asking to have abortions done. In all these cases, they have been saying that they are scared that if the baby is born, it will serve as some kind of proof or evidence against them. I have been counselling them, telling them that they don’t need to do this. I hope that once they go back home, they don’t try unsafe abortion practices instead.”
In another district, Barpeta Civil Hospital Superintendent Dr. Najirul Islam has a sobering observation: that the number of women visiting the ante-natal services at the hospital has dropped.
“There is a fear of the police, that they will get arrested if they come to the hospital, that we will report them. At our ante-natal set-up, daily we used to have a long queue of around 50 women every day. Now that has come down to 15-20,” he said.
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A lack of trust in the medical system and a fear of their families being tracked down through pregnancy-related information has seeped deep down. Across villages in Hojai, ASHA workers talk of the suspicion – and hostility – that has been directed at them since the start of the police action. As grassroots community health-workers, they are the ones who keep track of pregnancies and inoculation in villages and collate data on the same.
“While a lot of people have been blaming me for bringing the police into their homes, one villager has even been harassing and threatening me. They think that I’m the one who has been feeding information to the police,” said Niharul Nisa, the ASHA worker for Changmaji Tiniali where arrests have been made in six families.
She says that this suspicion has also been taking the form of women hesitating to approach her for their health requirement.
This Wednesday, she had called 33 women and children for various vaccines to the anganwadi centre. Only 18 turned, an unusually low number according to her.
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“I was surprised at the low numbers and asked neighbours of some of the missing women why they hadn’t come. They said the women are afraid to come to me because they think that I’ll get them arrested,” she said.
In Bhelowguri village, too, ASHA worker Rafia Begum complains of similar allegations. “There was a girl who told me that she is pregnant and that she needs to get her vaccinations done. I scheduled her for the first dose on Wednesday but she didn’t show up. When I asked her why she didn’t come, she said that her periods have started. There are murmurs that there is a child marriage case against her husband. Both husband and wife have been gone from the village since,” she added.
To try and address this trust deficit, a meeting was held at the Doboka CHC on Thursday with all ASHA workers, asking them to counsel villagers into trusting them and the medical system.
Possible fallout
With young or expecting mothers too afraid to seek out the reproductive help they need, there have been fears that they might turn to non-institutional deliveries, which is already a concern in several districts of Assam.
“We told them to ensure that all pregnant women continue to come to the centre as always and to counsel the villagers to convince them that we have nothing to do with the police action,” said Dr. Akanda.
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In the midst of the panic, 19-year-old Rabia Khatoon gave birth at the Doboka Community Health Centre on February 6. In her home in Pub Rowarpara village, the five-day-old baby lay beside her on blankets on the floor on Saturday, next to a fire her mother lit with the aim of easing her post-delivery pains. She has not seen her husband since she has given birth and is living with her parents.
Around a month ago, her husband Mukhtar Hussain had left for Golaghat for work. Then, a day before her delivery, police entered their home past midnight looking to make arrests for her marriage. Not finding Mukhtar in the house, they arrested her brother-in-law.
“Now he’s not come back fearing that he’ll be arrested, so I have no idea if he will come back anytime and if I will have to look after the baby myself,” she said.
Her father Fazul Haque is afraid that he might be arrested too. So like men across villages in the district, he has been spending his nights in the fields, hiding out in anticipation of police raids into their homes at any time.
