The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Wedded, cheated and dumped

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Wedded, cheated and dumped

Swathi.V

Deserting one's wife has become a norm in some old city areas rather than an exception

At the crossroads:Women who were deserted by their husbands at Eedi Bazaar in old city .

HYDERABAD: Kaneez Fathima from Eedi Bazaar has not seen her husband for five years, nor does she nurture the hope of seeing him again. Her only concern now is about the next meal for her family of five.

Fathima's reprobate husband deserted her after 11 years of marriage. She now works as a domestic help to eke out a living. While son Ejaj, all of 12, works in a footwear factory, her three daughters stay at home. Utterly poor and helpless, Fathima can't fathom how she is going to see her daughters married.

A norm

As an individual case, Fathima's story will, at the most, yield a sympathetic ear. However, one would be scandalised to know that there are some areas in the old city, full of women sharing Fathima's plight. Deserting one's wife is a norm rather than exception here, and poverty is stated to be the reason in most cases.

Malan Begum from Talabkatta found herself alone at the tender age of 21 when her husband suddenly disappeared. A vendor of trinkets, he left home after receiving threats from the landlord for failing to pay the house rent. Malan could not go to her parents as they are too poor to support her. She started making ‘agarbathis' (incense sticks) which fetch her Rs.70 per day.

Deserted families

Arifa, younger sister of Fathima, too was deserted by her husband after she bore two children from him. Sultana Begum from Fakiri Basthi near Asad Baba Nagar is one more victim. She was left alone in the third month of her pregnancy. Now her son is 19, but there is no trace of her husband.

S.Latha, a resource person from an NGO Mahita, vows that there are at least 400 to 500 deserted families supported by single women around Talabkatta area alone. Farhathunnissa, another activist, identified 50 cases in the Bahadurpura slums. Zaheda, a woman from Alinagar near Karwan, cites 40 such families in her neighbourhood. Khan Nagar, Siddiqui Nagar, Sultanshahi, Aman Nagar, Madina Nagar, Nasheman Nagar, Eedi Bazar, Jahangir Nagar and Kummarwadi are a few areas sheltering groups of deserted women and their families.

“Polygamy is one more reason for the rampant desertions. In most cases, parents give their daughters to married men due to poverty. After both wives give birth to, say, five children each, the man absconds finding it impossible to support two families,” says Nazia Firdous, another volunteer.

Addiction to liquor worsens the problem. There is no societal check on men resorting to such pranks. With no support arriving from either parents or in-laws, deserted women are forced to shoulder the family's burden all by themselves.

Children are the worst sufferers in all the cases of desertion.

They are never sent to school, as single mothers find it difficult to support their wards' education. After attaining a certain age, boys are sent to work. Girls, of course, wait to get married, and probably share their mothers' fate.

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