Cachar: Unmarried woman in labour left abandoned, delivers baby in a paddy field; Infant dead

She had run away with her boyfriend six months back and then found out she is pregnant. They were living in a rented house when she told her boyfriend that she is pregnant. After knowing it, the boy delayed his wedding plans and started giving her medicines. It did not work and she reached the advanced stage of her pregnancy. Four months later which is two months ago, he left her and went to Shillong.

Unable to pay rent, she returned to her paternal home. According to her, it was an abode of atrocities from sister-in-law, their children, and other cousins. The day before yesterday, her water broke and instead of a hospital, her paternal home decided to take her to that boy’s home. In the middle of a paddy field, she delivered the baby and then her family abandoned her.

This incident took place in Cachar District’s Suktala area. Located in the Dholai Legislative Assembly constituency, the area witnessed a devastating incident. The baby kept crying for help, the mother kept crying for help, but the family residing a stone’s throw distance away did not bother to extend their helping hands.

“The whole night, newborn baby and I stayed outdoors in this freezing-cold weather,” informs Sujata Begum. “Some time in the middle of the night, I realised the baby is dead,” the mother adds.

In the morning, locals saw a lady lying on the field. They started talking to her, gave her a blanket. After she told about her family and home, they reached out to them. “When we reached out to the woman’s family members, they clearly said that she is not their responsibility. Why didn’t she die wherever she ran away is what they told us,” said a local resident.

The local resident added, “Upon insisting that they must help their family member lying on the field, they started attacking us and so we had to rush away from their house which has plenty of family members.”

Then the locals informed the nearby hospital, block development officer, and other government officials about the woman’s miserable condition. ASHA workers reached the spot and rescued the woman. Now she has been admitted to the hospital and is under treatment. Her condition is unstable, informed the treating doctors.

She said her husband’s name is Rippon Laskar and she could not inform him about the delivery as her phone was snatched away by her family members.