Woman abandoned for giving birth to girlchild; stages sit-in at hubby's house

HYDERABAD: Despite the Union government's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign, incidents reflecting discrimination against the girlchild continue to take place in our midst.

In one such incident, a 35-year-old woman, along with her three children and parents, staged a protest at her husband's house at Lokayukta Colony in Saidabad here on Monday. Reason, she is being harassed for dowry and, more shockingly, was abandoned by her husband soon after she gave birth to a girlchild six years ago.

The victim, who is identified as G Swapna, also went to Saidabad police station along with her family members to lodge a complaint against her husband.

The couple, married in 2014, had a daughter in the same year. However, Swapna's parents claim that she was abandoned by their son-in-law shortly after the birth of the baby girl. Swapna's husband, G Srikanth, is a software employee in Hyderabad.

After keeping his wife and daughter at a distance for years, he finally brought them back to his house one and a half years ago. There was another twist in the tale. According to Swapna's parents, the couple was blessed with twins seven months ago. But surprisingly, the woman's parents were completely unaware of this because Srikanth never allowed his wife to speak to her parents.

B Narahari (70), the distressed father, told Newstap that his daughter's life had been ruined by their son-in-law. "We gave a dowry of Rs 12 lakh, 20 tulas of gold and silver and even performed the marriage on a grand scale but all in vain. Our son-in-law began torturing my daughter after three months of their marriage. He left her six years ago after she gave birth to their first child. He reclaimed her only one and a half years back. Later, they were blessed with twins, but this time it was one boy and one girl. Even then, our son-in-law tortured my daughter for giving birth to a girl child among the twins".

Narhari, a retired army officer, and his wife are concerned about the future of their daughter and grandchildren. "We are getting old and we are concerned about my daughter's future. He tortures not only my daughter but also my first grandchild. He treats her like a stepdaughter, beating her and making her do chores. My grandson refuses to return to his father. It's a terrible situation for my daughter and her children. After giving lakhs in dowry, our son-in-law is now demanding more. He never let us speak to my daughter for the past one and a half years," the 70-year-old father lamented.

He added, "When we went to see our daughter, he asked us to rub our noses against their door to let us in. In such a helpless situation, we were forced to do the same. We rubbed our noses for the sake of our daughter. We didn't know what to do, so we decided to hold a protest outside our son-in-law's house. We also lodged a complaint at the Saidabad police station against our son-in-law."

Reacting to the case, Suresh, additional Inspector of Saidabad PS, said: "The sight of such young children and a distraught mother at the police station was very sad. The woman (Swapna) lodged a complaint with us alleging dowry harassment. Since the children are so young, we sent them to the Nampally Women's PS for counselling. So, an FIR has not yet been filed. Counseling will be provided to them before any other action is taken. "

G Swapna and her husband are attending a counselling session at the Nampally Women's Police Station on Tuesday. Swapna's elderly parents are running from pillar to post to get justice for their daughter.