KEONJHAR: In a bizarre incident, a 36-year-old woman, mother of 10 children, was thrown out of her house by her husband in the Telkoi block of the district after she underwent a tubectomy. Left homeless, Janaki Dehuri was living under a tree for three days at Demiria village in Salikena panchayat.
On February 14, Janaki underwent sterilisation surgery at a camp held at Telkoi community health centre. While Janaki underwent the surgery on the advice of the local ASHA and a doctor, it did not go down well with her husband Rabi Dehuri who abused her and threw her out of the house.
Rabi and Janaki had married 16 years back. Janaki happens to be Rabi’s second wife and bore him 11 children, one of whom a girl, died post-birth. Sources in the local community said that the woman delivered a child almost every year.
Sources said, raising 10 children was an uphill task for Janaki due to which she underwent sterilisation surgery. In fact, her last child is about a month old. What’s worse is that Ravi did not even offer food to his own children who were forced to depend on the benevolence of the villagers for survival.
After being forced to live with her children under the tree in the village, a health worker apparently moved her to a health centre. In tribal-dominated districts like Keonjhar, superstition prevents communities to opt for family planning procedures which are considered taboo.