The Lost Mothers Of Yavatmal

In a border district of Maharashtra, a large number of women are stigmatised for being abandoned by men after pregnancy.

- Haima Deshpande

The mud house is small, has a thatched roof, and plastered with cow dung; 22-year-old Kiran sits outside. We’re at Rajni village in Yavatmal district, Maharashtra. This is not Kiran’s house, and before monsoon descends, she will have to move out. The house belongs to a relative who has allowed her to stay, but his wife does not like this arrangement. A small boy clad in only a shirt walks out of the house, heads towards Kiran and settles down on her lap.

“This is my child. He is one-and-a-half years old,” she says. Kiran’s mother Shobha also stays in the hut. They are farmhands, who rush off to work when a tempo comes to the village to pick up labour. Since employment is seasonal, the villagers do not tell one another when there is work to be found on other farms. Women are paid Rs 100 for a day’s work, which lasts from 10 am to 6 pm, while men get double the amount for the same time. It’s acceptable for men to take a beedi break, but should women take time off to feed their babies, they get a pay-cut. This results in women tying their babies above their bellies so that they’re able to feed them as they work. Kiran is one such mother.

Kiran is slim. She looks attractive with her honey-kissed complexion and kaajal-rimmed eyes. She is the only one in her village who dons a salwaar kameez, where most women wear khasta saris and have weather-beaten skin. “I like to look good,” she says. She has no friends and few women talk to her.