Unsafe deliveries in relief camps

Since the communal violence started in Kandhamal district of Orissa on August 24 this year, there seems no respite for the Christians in the state as their persecution is going on relentlessly. The violence unleashed by VHP and Bajrang Dal has forced them to remain in relief camps where a new problem in the form of unsafe deliveries by women has cropped up.

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Since there is no access to doctors, hospitals or medical kits, most women are nowhere to go but deliver their babies in relief camps with the help of fellow refugees. Due to unhygienic conditions and lack of medical aid, around ten miscarriages in the past week have been reported.

In case of women manage to give birth, the conditions in the relief shelters are so bad that mortality is a big fear, and if the situation continues to remain like this, it can be a serious problem. In and around relief camps, water is dirty and mosquito-infested and people are defecating in the open. Those women who fled into the jungles and stayed there for days are badly affected.

Meanwhile, in the midst of unabated atrocities against Christians by the VHP and Bajrang Dal activists, the government has failed take stern action against rioters and trouble makers. Under attack over his handling of communal violence in the state, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has defended his government, claiming that action had been taken against the VHP and Bajrang Dal for attacks on churches and minorities.

His usual rhetoric was: "There have been violent incidents and communal clashes in other states as well. Why should the Orissa government be targeted?" No justification can be as ridiculous as this when a CM evades the blame just because others are also doing the same.

In a shocking but rare interview given to a private television news channel in Orissa, the Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Orissa State Committee, Sabyasachi Panda, claimed that it was the CPI (Maoist) who had killed Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others in Jalespata Ashram in Kandhamal district.

The tragedy is that in the case of communal riots government machinery often acts late so much so the enough damage is done. While women in relief camps are suffering, culprits are at large and the government is busy in politics.