UNSTEADY UPPER HAND

The BJP and its allies have the edge in the perception war in the northeast, but that could change if the Modi government implements the CAA and the INDIA bloc gets its act together

- SUSHANTA TALUKDAR

Every morning, we have to get up early and go near the river bank to relieve ourselves. Women go in one direction, men in another. During floods, it is hard to find a spot,” said Sajinara Bibi, 30, a mother of two. Pregnancy makes matters even worse as alternative methods will have to be explored.

Sajinara is from Simina village in Assam’s Kamrup district, about 30km from Guwahati. She suffers from stomach ache and frequent bowel movements. Her husband, Moinul Haque, 33, earns around ₹400 as a daily-wage labourer, whenever he gets work. Sajinara receives ₹1,250 in her bank account every month under the Orunodoi scheme, the Assam government’s cash payout scheme for women. The couple got an LPG connection by spending ₹5,500 from their savings, but they are unable to get refills regularly. They feed their cooking fires with dried weeds to reduce LPG consumption. “The price of an LPG refill is almost equal to three days of our wages. If we spend the entire amount on buying gas cylinders, we will have to skip meals for three days,” said Sajinara.

Unlike Sajinara, women in most households have received free LPG connections under the Ujjwala scheme of the Central government, but dumps of dried river weeds outside their houses tell the other half of their stories. During the last monsoon, this reporter saw villagers, mostly women and children, collecting driftwood from the flooded Brahmaputra, risking their lives.