Aurélie's survey about medical needs and women trafficking

On last thursday, July 28, it is with pleasure that I went to Sundarbans again, breath some fresh air and admire the greenery there.  Along with Bala, a student who translated the Bengali for me, we went to Nagendrapur in the 24th district of Sundarbans to continue the investigation about the medical needs of residents and women trafficking.

Our tour began with a meeting with Sabanti, 55, whose 13 year old daughter disappeared a few years ago. Like many young girls of the Sundarbans, she had gone into town to work as a maid. But during one of their visits, the family learns her disappearance and no one knows what happened to her since.  Then comes  Jita, 22, to tell how her sister was abducted and compelled to marry an old man after the promise of a job in Mumbai. Today, she lives with  her husband in Uttar Pradesh,  who tortures her and harasses her whenever she comes to see her family in Sundarbans. These women told us that poverty, lack of education and difficulties in feeding the family lead to such situations. InMaLanka is currently working on developing a program with Mukti to deal with this more and more important problem.

The afternoon continued with an interview of a group of women about their health problems. Too poor and living too far away of the city to see a doctor, they told us they had nothing to treat their asthma, their gastric diseases or anemia. They also give birth at home because everything has to be paid in hospitals. Their average baby weighs 1.5 kg at birth. It was extremely interesting to talk to these women to better understand how they live. At the announcement of our project of mobile clinic, they all exclaimed with joy and one of them even told me "I love you" so she was delighted. I think there is no better motivation to help them.