Plight of Indian Villages- Part 17

Treating her as a girl child and not as a child was like closing the first exit door open to
her. Thus began her march along the slippery road to death in the patriarchal society
where Meera lived. Child bearing is the only acknowledged contribution of a woman.
Meera became pregnant nine times to have five surviving children.
She was unable to control or regulate her fertility in increased her chances of slipping
down along the road. If either she or her husband had made use of family planning
services, she could have found a way out of her body would not have been taxed beyond
resources.
Risk to life is repeated child bearing increases from the third birth onwards. Birth interval
of at least two years is must to allow a woman’s body to recover from extra demands
pregnancy and lactation.
Becoming pregnant before the age of 18 and after the age of 35 years takes a heavy toll
on women who are under nourished and over worked. An educated woman is more likely
to seek professional help, expresses her wish and take a decision regarding the number of
children or spacing in their births. Thus, she could not enter the second exit, which could
have saved her from death.
Her husband and in-laws had a lacka-vaisical attitude towards her becoming to get
exhausted and was having swelling also in her legs. She has had complications in her
previous pregnancies. One of her children died because Meera did not get a dose of
tetanus and the traditional birth attendant who delivered the child, did not practice five
cleans necessary for a safe delivery.
The health worker prescribed her some medicines and also referred her to the hospital but
her family members; pregnancy was a very routine thing which could easily be tackled at
home.
 Plight of Indian Villages- Part 18

Her husband never bothered to get her medicines or to take her to the health care centre.
Her advance age, poor nutritional status and severe anemia put her in a high-risk
category. But she could not avail of any of the existing medical facility. Her family
members had a very cool and casual attitude towards her case.
A supportive family would have helped her to escape through this third route. But she
was denied entry and had to continue her walk. She had severe labour pains in the eighth
month. The TBA was called but she could not handle the case.
It took one whole day for the family members to decide what course to take after two
days of labour. She was carried to the nearest health centre where she was referred to the
district hospital. A journey, which she could have covered in only one hour by a motor
vehicle, took her five precious hours.
Her blood reserves were already at low level where a normal person can sustain blood
loss of 600 cc; loss of 250cc of blood can be fatal for an Anemic woman.
She had started bleeding profusely by the time she reached the hospital. She was given
blood three hours after she reached there and the quantity given was less than what her
body required. An operation was performed and she delivered a low birth weight baby
girl and died after two hours.
She could not get access to the last exit. She encountered and she died. Meera’s death or
another maternal death for that matter is a tragedy what may apparently seen the loss of a
single life.
 Plight of Indian Villages- Part 19

Think of lot of those surviving but orphaned children who are rendered vulnerable. Those
who care why a woman has to die such a death, must ask that why person concerned at
various exists did not let her enter those routs. It is the high time for husband and other
family members to realize that multiple burdens of womanhood are too much.
The least husbands can do for their wives is to practice family planning methods, to take
her to nearest health worker for checkup, to ensure that delivery is performed by a trained
person and if a girl child is born, she is not discriminated against. She is given basic
education and not married early.
Now our state government is fully aware of his responsibility to provide medical facility
even on village level. The government is not discriminating in the matter of providing
education to girls. Various schemes like Kanya Vidhya Dhan have been started by
government for their welfare.
 Plight of Indian Villages- Part 20

Malti of Dhampur was married to Bansi belonging to washer man cast five years back.
Bansi was resident of village Mastemau. The name of Malti’s father was Rajju.
After two years of marriage, Bansi, husband of Malti died due to Cancer. After some time
the in-laws of Malti compelled her to leave her husband’s house. She was having no
alternative but to come her father’s house.
To get justice, her mother knocked the doors of high Police officials. But, when no one
heard the problem of her daughter, she became ill and died after some time.
Ultimately one day Malti went to her in-laws and demanded her share in agricultural
land. But, her in-laws refused to give her any share and even did not allow her to live in
her husband’s house.
Her in-laws capture the share of Bansi and started growing crops. A case was registered
in civil court, Lucknow by Malti. Malti did not get justice either from police and or from
any court.
Social worker Ram Pyare Yadav, resident of near by village Madarpur tried his level best
to get justice for Malti and filed a suit in High court, Lucknow bench on behalf of Malti.
The high court ordered the revenue authorities of the district to allow Malti to get her
share. After this, the dispute was solved and Malti get the delayed justice.