Sokila Jigdung (30) is expecting her third child any day. But far away from a hospital, she is lodged in a makeshift relief camp at the Kothalguri Lower Primary School along with 625 others, all rendered homeless in the wave of violence that has been sweeping across the 10,434-sq km Karbi Anglong Hills district of Assam since September 26. Sokila’s entire village, Disagedeba, about 35 km from the district headquarters here, was razed by unidentified miscreants on October 14, and she, along with about 120 residents of the village, walked through darkness the whole night to take shelter at the nearest village of the same tribe— the Dimasas—which is located close to a police outpost at Dhansiri. ‘‘It was a difficult task walking through the jungle and along the railway track the entire night with a baby inside me. But I kept praying to God, and he gave me the strength while my fellow villagers provided me the courage,’’ Sokila said. Sokila has been in the relief camp along with her husband for five days now, and today the first medical team reached them. ‘‘The doctor checked me and gave me these pills,’’ she said, showing the folic acid and ferrous sulphate tablets. Sokila perhaps is lucky. ‘‘There are over 200 pregnant women in the 47 relief camps that have been set up in different parts of the district torn apart by ethnic violence between the Karbi and Dimasa tribes since September 26, and not all are lucky to get medical aid,’’ said Madhuri Lobongdisa, a school teacher who has been helping the authorities organise the relief camps. This hill district, and for that matter both the hill districts of Assam, do not have enough doctors to attend to the people even during peace time. Even throughout Assam, the Congress government has already given up its efforts to force the government doctors to go and work in the rural and interior areas. Despite an acute shortage of doctors, the inmates of the Dhansiri Indoor Stadium relief camp, located nearby, are somewhat lucky. The Don Bosco Mission here has roped in a team of their own nuns, some of whom are trained in nursing. ‘‘The pregnant women and infants are really in a sorry state. There is no safe drinking water. There is nothing called sanitation. And above all, these pregnant women have been terribly traumatised,’’ said Sister Dulari, who has been with the Don Bosco mission here for seven years. The Don Bosco mission has also built toilets for the inmates in three camps. Meanwhile, the local RSS office is also gearing up to provide healthcare to the victims of violence. ‘‘An assortment of medicine including ORS packets, baby food, multi-vitamins and mosquito nets are arriving here from Guwahati tomorrow. There’s no point complaining or waiting for the government,’’ said Shankar Das, prantiya pracharak of the RSS. Though the government has been providing rice, dal, salt and chira (flat rice) for over 27,000 people currently lodged in the camps, there has been nothing which the infants can consume. ‘‘You cannot expect a two-year-old child to eat chira. He needs baby food,’’ said Puspalata Engtipi, a schoolteacher who is also president of the relief camp at Inglong Cherop near here. Engtipi said there were 21 pregnant women in the camp at Inglong Cherop. ‘‘Three others, who are expecting in a day or two have been sent to the district government hospital,’’ she said. At the relief camp set up at the Dhansiri Handloom Center, a woman gave birth to a baby on Wednsday. ‘‘Luckily, I was there at that time,’’ said Mary Hansu, the only trained nurse who is looking after the women and children of the three camps at Dhansiri.
