MUSARNIYA, August 20: There was no sign that the continuous rain since Friday night would stop till Saturday morning. Suddenly, water from the Bighi river gushed into the settlement. Within few minutes, the entire village was inundated.

Houses built at low altitudes were swept away. Locals then released their cattle. However, not all of them escaped the high speed of water. Everyone in the community started running towards a local school clutching their little children. Meanwhile, Asmin Khatun who was having a labor pain was struggling to give birth to her baby on the floor of her house.

Before the flood could hit her house, Asmin gave birth to a son. Though with the help of her physically challenged mother, she delivered a baby but it became a real challenge for her to protect herself and her newborn from the deadly flood. She spent the next three days on a concrete terrace of her neighbor.

Asmin, who lost her father at an early age, got married when she was 12. A year later she gave birth to a son and at the age of 15, she became the mother of two sons. Her husband is not mentally fit. So, she lives with her mother, sister and a brother in her paternal home based in Mukiyapatti-6, Musarniya. 

It has already been a week since she gave birth to a child but some might not believe that this new mother has not had a proper meal since the delivery. As rainfall finally stopped, some organizations distributed relief to the victims on the premises of a school. But, her family was deprived of relief as none of them were aware of the distribution process.

In the absence of her husband, Asmin’s mother raised her three children on her own. Her eleven-year-old son and thirteen years old daughter don’t go to school. “I hardly earn money to feed my children but can’t afford their education,” said Jamala, Asmin’s mother. “Not a single grain of food has entered my stomach for the last seven days.”
 

For the past one week, Asmin has been breastfeeding her son without eating anything herself. But her mother is more worried about her younger daughter who is still unmarried. “Even my younger daughter has reached a marriageable age and I don’t know how I will organize her marriage,” Whatever the food grains they had was swept away by the flood. Not just that, the flood even damaged the crops in their fields.

Though various organizations have distributed relief to the victims of Musarniya, many destitute like Jamala are still deprived of such relief. 

 
• 15-year-old mother
 
• without food
 
• for a week