The women, the children and the elderly suffered more of a collateral damage in the recent communal violence in West Bengal’s Murshidabad. The situation is such that mothers who just gave birth had to flee from their homes in Murshidabad and take shelter in refugee camps in the adjoining district of Malda.
Earlier this month, West Bengal’s Murshidabad district was rocked by protests over the Waqf Amendment law. The protests soon took turn into communal clash which affected even the women, children and the elderly. The local women who are living in extreme fear, have urged the central government via the NCW to give them protection and security.
A delegation from the National Commission for Women (NCW) led by Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar visited Malda and Murshidabad on Friday and Saturday to meet those affected by last week’s violence, most of whom are Hindus. When the NCW delegation visited the affected areas, the local women were inconsolable, who narrated their plight to her while sobbing incessantly. The NCW chief stated that she along with her team was “shaken by the plight of women”.
Women living in fear, fled from homes shortly after giving birth
“I visited from door to door and spoke to the affected families for two days in Malda and Murshidabad. There is an atmosphere of fear. The way local people have been beaten up is not acceptable. They have not spared even women, children and the elderly. We want to stand by women and their families who are helpless and in pain. We met women with children as young as one month, who had to flee from their homes and take shelter in camps after giving birth amid violence,” Vijaya Rahatkar told ANI.
What was our mistake? Murshidabad women ask NCW Chief
“We are shaken by the plight of the women (in Murshidabad). The local women kept sobbing and asking us, what was our mistake, what did we do to face such consequences? We are very ordinary villagers who work hard to earn our living. Why were we attacked? They have been exiled from their own homes, their own villages in their own state. They worked hard to build their homes with dreams in their eyes. Their dream homes were destroyed in front of their eyes,” the NCW Chairperson added.
Murshidabad women seek BSF protection
Women in Dhuliyan, one of the worst-affected areas in the state’s minority-dominated Murshidabad district, have urged the Centre to set up permanent Border Security Force (BSF) camps in violence-hit pockets to ensure their safety following recent communal unrest. . Several women broke down while narrating their plight to the delegation and pleaded for the permanent deployment of central forces.
A displaced woman told delegation member, said, “We won’t survive without permanent BSF camps here. If needed, we are ready to offer our own land and homes for setting them up.”
The NCW team assured locals that their concerns would be conveyed to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. “We are here to stand with you in this moment of crisis. The whole country is watching and supporting you. We will submit a detailed report to the Centre and include the demand for permanent BSF presence in this region,” a delegation member assured the local women.
Hindu women being taunted, threatened: BJP
BJP leader Amit Malviya has alleged that Hindu women are being taunted, threatened in the affected districts post communal violence.
Malviya took to social media on Saturday to share a video where a local woman can be heard sobbing and saying in Bengali how Hindu women are being targeted, teased and threatened in Murshidabad.
Sharing the video on X, BJP’s IT Cell head and Co-in charge of West Bengal Amit Malviya wrote, “Muslims won’t let us live. They hold knives to our throats, hurl bombs. When we step out onto the streets, they taunt us — ‘Hindu girl, Hindu girl.’ But look at us — we don’t behave like that.”
“This is the grim reality of present-day Murshidabad. Mamata Banerjee cannot buy the silence of these grieving women,” he added.