Imphal, September 28: Still in the prime of their youth, but already tasted with bitter experience of life, around 30 survivors of violence against women shared their tears and joy along with a new found strength and conviction to fight against injustice and piece together their shattered lives.

Women Action for Development (WAD) facilitated an experience sharing session for these survivors at the training hall of Centre for Social Development today.

Sharing her experience, a young woman whose feminine chastity had been violated by some UG suspects said because of poverty, her husband used to make dresses at home and she goes to the neighbouring villages to sell them, and run the family and educated their children with the income earned from this business.

One day while returning home , she was intercepted and gangraped by some armed persons who identified themselves as underground activists.

Although one of the rapists had been awarded capital punishment, the rest of the culprits are still scot-free.

After the incident which took place about one year back, her husband stopped loving her and started abusing at any given opportunities by calling her names and charging with tarnishing the reputation of the family.

In the absence of the protective care of her husband, she has not been able to go out of the house and mixed around with other people in the locality.

Without a fault of her own, today she is living like a guilty person.

A victim of domestic violence who is just 17 years of age, said after her marriage, her husband and mother-in-law ill-treated her for not bringing enough dowry.

When she was five months pregnant, her mother-in-law took her to a doctor on the pretext of medical check up.

At the hospital, the doctor gave her two injections that left her unconscious and aborted her child.

She had not given her consent to the abortion.

Even after the abortion, instead of providing necessary medicines, her motherin-law send her to her parental home.

Recounting the incident with bitterness, the young victim said the most heart-shocking thing that she learnt after the abortion was the lies told to the doctor by the family members of her husband that she was a mentally disturbed and had been impregnated by some unknown person while her husband was away from home.

She informed that a case has been filed under the Domestic Violence Act seeking justice.

Another woman victim from Churachandpur district who got married in a family of another community said 'Just because I belong to another community and did not bring any dowry, all the family members of my husband subjected me to various sort of harassment and mental torture'.

Unable to bear with the suffering and not seeing any hope, specially after the death of husband within few years of their marriage, she started taking drugs and finally got addicted.

Fortunately, with help from some benevolent women organisations, today she is undergoing treatment at a rehabilitation centre with the hope of leading a new life.

Another 30-year old woman victim of domestic violence who had suffered miscarriages twice due to negligence and abusive nature of her husband, said after her husband started having affairs many other women, he tried to send her back to her parents.

Instead of taking care of her during the pregnancy, her husband physically abused her leading to the miscarriages.

When she got pregnant for the third time, she had some problems in the womb, thus requiring abortion.

After that the family members of the in-laws ill-treated her all the more and tried to chase her out from the house by saying that they do not want any woman in the family who cannot bear children.

Today, the poor woman in staying in a Shwadhar Home.

Explaining on the objective of organising such an experience sharing session, secretary of WAD Sobita Mangsatabam said it is to bring to the notice of the public how much the victims of violence against women are suffering in the society and to encourage such victims to come out and speak up for their rights.

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