Yellava is 22 years old and nine months pregnant. She is about to have her first baby and she is extremely possessive and concerned about it. Naturally. However, she does not have the facility or the luxury of a monthly scan, a hospital nearby or the comfort of dietary supplements, that urban mothers have.
Yellavva is the second wife of Gaddi Balappa a daily wage labourer, who does not have any affection for her. Consequently, after she conceived, she could only depend on her parents for succor and resided with them at Neelakantarayanagadde in Yadgir district’s Surapur taluk, an island that is marooned in the monsoon by the marauding Krishna River that surrounds it with the nearest hospital at kekkere, only 4 kms from her village, but across the river.
Yellavva’s pregnancy was normal in its course, but shorn of the fancy medical care that urban mothers are used to – No special diet and no pre natal exercise. She did not have emotional support of a loving husband or group pre natal interactions. “Both my dad and mom work as laborers. I am the oldest of seven children. Except for bajra rotis, subsidized rice and some vegetables, I ate nothing else ever since I conceived. “She told a Bangalore daily.
However, as the monsoon set in, she became anxious more about the rising river levels than the pain of child birth – She did not want to be stranded on the island without adequate medical care, when it was time to have her baby. As her pregnancy progressed, she desperately wanted to shift to the mainland.
She constantly persuaded her brothers and father to shift her to the mainland, but their social circumstances were such, that her pleas fell on deaf ears.
On Wednesday, however, the Krishna swelled like never before, after excess water from Bassava Sagara reservoir, 10-km upstream, was let into the river.
Yellavva and her family had little choice now – remain on the island or swim across the raging river as none of the boatmen were willing to take her across seeing the condition of the river.
There were a couple of facts that she and her family had to ignore in this risky endeavor – Yellavva did not know swimming and was 9 months pregnant.
But when the decision to swim across was taken by father and her family, she didn’t hesitate.
“This is my first baby and my love for it is enormous. Though there are rustic pregnancy-care and delivery practices in the village, I yearned to reach the nearest hospital in time. But as the water levels started rising menacingly and no boatman was ready to take me across, I got desperate and chose to swim as the baby is due to arrive any time,” Yellava told a Bangalore English daily soon after a Venkatesh Dore, a reporter with a Kannada daily, had first reported her daring act.
“I don’t know how to swim. Whenever we went to the river to wash clothes, we used to flap our hands and limbs. Even when I was about to plunge in, I protested. Praying to gods I jumped into the river only to fall back. It was so cold and suffocating, even at that hour; it was 10 am. The strong currents kept dragging me. But then my brothers tied dried pumpkins and bottle gourd on either side to maintain buoyancy,” she said
Her brother Lakshman led the way, while her father Hanumappa, kept pace with her on their exhausting journey across the river. Two male relatives followed them.
As they swam, the water levels began rising and the water splashed on her face, making it difficult for her to breathe. As the current dragged her into the river, she was pushed on to her back, but with her father’s help she turned on to her stomach and continued to swim, flapping her limbs and hands. Half an hour into the swim, Yellavva had reached only the middle of the river was exhausted and had started to drink the water of the river to alleviate her fatigue. This made things worse for her.
She felt herself going under. “It was so scary. Then all those swimming around me started to push me one after another while my brother swimming in the front began dragging me by holding on to the rope. About 45 minutes later, we managed to reach the shores on Gollapallera Doddi village on the other side of the bank,” Yellavva recalled.
Normally the half kilometer swim takes around half an hour, but the grueling swim took them over 90 minutes “Rather than swimming straight against the current, we chose to swim in a diagonal direction by adjusting ourselves with the current. Hence, it was more than a kilometer’s distance and took close to about two hours to finish the stretch,” Jattappa, Yellavva’s cousin told the Bangalore daily.
According to Yellavva, four or five people watching the flowing river, from the banks were surprised to see them swimming across. They helped them out of the water, but were soon spewing venom at them especially her father for undertaking this venture in her condition. But his response shamed them. “what if she had died on the island awaiting medical help?”
Even as they admired her grit and determination, the villagers, conscious of her exhausted plight, immediately warmed her with towels, and shifted her to a relative’s house to recuperate. Doctors have reported that both the mother and yet-unborn baby are doing well.
Scores of village islands in North Karnataka bear the brunt of the river each monsoon and the government must do something about it …. fast.
