All over India in 9 days

I've done more in the last week and a half than I usually do in months. Last Monday I waited impatiently for the travel agency to confirm my waitlist train ticket to Asansol. The next day I was off on a train all by myself, traveling 14 hours overnight to the state of West Bengal. Asansol is the second-biggest city in WB, with 1.2 million people, and is fast-growing.

After 12 straight hours of fact-finding, enjoying chhena sweets with the ANM and the health activist.

In Asansol, I met up with an experienced health advocate (after a scary 6 hours in the city when her train was delayed!) I managed to get a hotel room by myself and spent the extra time knitting and reading. We were there because two months ago, two women died during a sterilization camp. Here's the information  we had when we headed to the hospital:

DURGAPUR, 14 DEC: Two tribal women died today post ligation surgery  at a rural block hospital in Asansol today. Chandmoni Hembram of Kalipathar village and Radharani Tudu of Gaurangadihi village, who underwent ligation at Kelejora Block Primary Health Centre along with 12 other tribal women, died while they were taken to Asansol District Hospital in the late afternoon.

The Asansol administration apprehended that the casualties might provoke the tribals residing in the villages surrounding the rural hospital to unleash attack on the block medical officer and his family. The ADM, Asansol, Mr Jayanta Aikat said: “We have asked police to beef up security surveillance across the hospital area to prevent any untoward situation.”

Tribal housewives queued up at the Kelejora Block Primary Health Centre in Baraboni, about 15 km from Asansol town today where a mass ligation camp was organised. In all 14 women from the adjoining villages underwent tubal ligation surgery at the Kelejora Hospital today.

Chandmoni Hembram and Radharani Tudu, both aged around 40 were also taken to the camp and according to the hospital authorities:
“Their cases became complicated as both complained of gradual deterioration within an hour of operation.” The ADM, Asansol, Mr Jayanta Aikat said: “The medical officers told me that both the women were physically weak, so the rural hospital referred them immediately to the Asansol District Hospital.” On their way to the hospital, both the women died triggering panic among the medical staff. The bodies were kept under supervision at the Asansol Hospital for the night. MLA, Baraboni, Mr Bidhan Upadhyaya said: “Baraboni is a block having 43 villages under eight panchayats and the tribal and downtrodden mass contribute a significant percentage of the demography. The casualties, besides making ligation a fear factor among the backward communities, would also create tension in the area.”
Tubal ligation is a surgery performed to block woman’s fallopian tubes for permanent birth
control.

The district administration has engaged the BDO, Baraboni to table a report on the matter at the earliest.

Taken from: https://kractivist.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/india-2-tribal-women-die-post-ligation-surgery-westbengal-vaw/

Can you imagine this happening in the U.S.? In Boston, or in DC, with all the fantastic hospitals? Women dying at a sterilization camp, and the first reaction is to get the police ready in case the tribal people protest?! Obviously, HRLN wanted to investigate what went wrong and publicize it so this tragedy doesn't occur again. (It's also a little crazy to think they sent me off on a fact-finding based on nothing more than the above report).

I volunteered to go because I wanted to see more of India and I felt comfortable interviewing doctors and hospital administrators after my first fact-finding to Uttarakhand. With the expert translation skills of the health activist and an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), sometimes across 3 languages, we were able to talk to administrators, the doctor who performed the sterilizations, and the Santal tribal families of the women who had died (pictured above).

My wonderful guide Preenita, a first year attorney in the HRLN Kolkata office.

 After 2.5 days in Asansol, I hopped on a coach bus (similar to Bolt or Megabus) to Kolkata, only 3.5 hours away. After discussing the trip to Asansol with my supervisor, we both agreed that I might as well go to Kolkata, the capitol of WB and the third largest city in India. It was an opportunity for me to see a beautiful city and also to do some additional fact-finding. I met with a recent law grad and a law student who acted as my translators and we interviewed pregnant women and women with infants. For three long days, we traveled to slums, railroad stations, highway underpasses, and sidewalks lining the streets of Kolkata. As expected, there weren't nearly enough shelters for women and families, but Kolkata did have 35 shelters, far more than the 0 shelters the city government had listed in last year's report.

After 3 days in Kolkata, I got on another long train - 20 hours to Agra, home to the Taj Mahal. Thanks to the Big Bang Theory DVDs Justin had mailed me, it wasn't too bad and I had a small upper bunk to myself with a privacy curtain. I was able to coordinate my trip to catch the tail end of my mom's stay in Agra, and I was able to enjoy dinner, a good night's sleep, and my first bath in months in her hotel.

I went to the Taj and Agra Fort, and then had an uncomfortable ride home on a government-run bus after my coach bus was cancelled.

Overall, an amazing but exhausting trip, and now I have less than a week left!