HIV+ mother thrown out of home

KOLKATA: A 34-year-old HIV Positive widow and mother of two was ostracized, assaulted and thrown out of her Dakshineswar home by neighbours under the alleged instruction of the husband of a local Trinamool Congress councillor.
She and her children have been rendered homeless for the last two weeks with the administration choosing to look the other way till rights activists took up the matter and brought it to media glare on Saturday.Earlier, local people had allegedly drove her husband to commit suicide by taunting him repeatedly for his HIV Positive status and threatening eviction.
A “nexus” between local landsharks, the councillor’s husband and the former land owner of the house allegedly conspired to evict the woman by instigating neighbours to banish the “morally corrupt” woman from the area.
She and her children were dragged out of the house on November 23 and the door was padlocked. The trio has since been spending the nights either at a railway platform or with relatives who allowed them only one night’s stay.
The woman has been running from pillar to post in search of help from the administration, only to be refused everywhere. “I told police officials everything and requested them to make an arrangement for my children and me to return home. But, nobody took the matter seriously. With my emergency medicines lying in the locked home, I tried to gain entrance to access them but was threatened, abused and assaulted, which forced me to leave the spot,” the widow told TOI while recounting her horror story on Saturday.
It was only after she managed to get in touch with activists of South 24-Parganas Network for People Living with HIV+, a non-government organization, that she received some support.
Members of the NGO accompanied her to Belghoria police station and lodged a complaint. The woman also met the North 24-Parganas district magistrate on Friday and sought her intervention.
The widow lived in a house on Abbas Ali Lane, Dakshineswar, with her two sons. The elder one is 14-year-old and studies in Class IX, while the younger one is six-year-old and a student of Class II. The house is in ward No. 13 of Kamarhati Municipality. Her husband, who was a grocer, had committed suicide in May after being hounded by neighbours following the HIV Positive diagnosis during tests prior to a brain tumor operation. The woman was thereafter asked to undergo a check and she too tested positive.
“After the initial shock, I took it bravely and went through the entire process of medication and counselling at RG Kar Hospital. I decided to keep my condition under wraps when doctors said we could lead a normal life under medication and care. I looked forward to life as my two sons were not infected. But, my husband could not take the torture by neighbours and committed suicide on May 17,” the widow recounted.
The woman’s ordeal took a turn for the worse with former land owner Amit Das, Laltu Bose (husband of Mithu Bose, the TMC councillor of ward No. 13 of Kamarhati Municipality) and their associates allegedly driving the family out of the house.
The victim’s husband had purchased the 1.5 cottah land from Das and constructed a single-storey house there.
“The local councilor’s husband and his associates threatened and abused us as well. We knocked on the doors of several administration officials, including local police officers, SDO and DM, seeking action against the accused. But nothing has happened till now,” said Sebika Chowdhury, co-coordinator of the NGO.
Khitish Mondal, the president of the NGO who took the woman to the DM’s office, said, “We could not meet the DM. But his secretary assured us of action.”
Laltu Bose, the husband of the councilor, refuted the allegation leveled against him and launched a tirade against the woman, accusing her character. “I was falsely implicated,” Bose said.
Kamarhati MLA and transport minister Madan Mitra said, “I have asked to the Kamarhati Municipality chairman to give a detailed report in this connection.”
DC-DD of Barrackpore commissionerate Ajay Thakur said, “We are looking into the matter seriously.”