Kolkata :

Midnight on July 31 had ushered in a new freedom in Cooch Behar’s 51 Bangladeshi enclaves. It took the wail of a newborn 12 days later to underline what it actually meant. Named Azad, he is the first baby born in free territory -with his parents’ real names, and calling what was no-man’s land his home.

When TOI had met the pregnant 18-year-old Jharna Biwi a fortnight ago, the Bangladeshi enclave of Poator Kuthi in Cooch Behar was excited because this baby would be special. At 6.30am on Wednesday , Azad was born at Bamonhat primary health centre. Never has the birth of a newborn -to a teenage mother -been the cause of such joy in any enclave.

Gone are the days when even quacks, what to speak of doctors, would refuse to deliver babies of enclave residents.Would-be-mothers would suffer the ignominy of lying about their husbands’ name.Azad’s elder brother, born four years ago, was named Saheed (martyr). Grandfather Mujibur Ali is ecstatic but cannot forget the shame and agony of half a century .”When Saheed was born in 2011, we had to send Jharna to her maternal home in Dinhata’s Picnicdhora, evading BSF patrols. We had to lie about her husband’s name and give a fake Indian address just to get her into hospital. Not any more,” Ali said. “Azad signals the new dawn,” he said, before hurrying off to offer sweets to visitors flocking to his home.

When Jharna felt pre-mature labour pains in the predawn hours, her brother-inlaw Meharul and mother-inlaw Jamina Biwi took her in a van rickshaw to the primary health care centre, half-anhour away . This in itself would be a huge task a fortnight ago. Being Bangladeshis, they couldn’t step out of their villages for fear of being hounded by BSF or police.And getting admission in a state-run health facility was out of the question.

As Poator Kuthi savoured the sweets of Azad’s birth, 70 year-old Mansoor Ali recalled how Asima Biwi was denied treatment in 2010.

“Nearly 3,500 enclave residents braved a nine-hour stand-off with police and BSF to get her treated at Dinhata sub-divisional hospital. The administration relented only when they realized the protest could snowball into a huge agitation. Her baby was born that day and we named him Jehad (struggle),” said Mansoor, president of Poator Kuthi enclave exchange committee. Mansoor said, “Jehad’s birth may have brought our plight before the people but it didn’t change our way of life. Expectant mothers had to fudge their husbands’ name (give an Indian’s name) and address to get admitted to hospitals. Nothing can be a bigger insult to a married woman than to lie about the father of her child.” He added, “But this morning, I held Jharna’s hand and told her to go with her head held high and tell them that she belongs to Poator Kuthi, India, and her husband’s name is Jamidul Ali. She did.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> India / by Kamalendu Bhadra, TNN / August 13th, 2015