War-babies
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War-babies are referred to here as babies born to Bangali women consequent of their being raped by Pakistani soldiers and other criminals who took advantage of the situation of the war of liberation (March to December 1971). While they are referred to as the 'unwanted children', the 'enemy children', the 'illegitimate children', and more contemptuously, the 'bastards', their birth-mothers are also variously referred to as the 'violated women', the women', the 'distressed women', the 'rape victims', the 'victims of military repression', the 'affected women' and the 'unfortunate' women. Many birth-mothers committed suicide in order to avoid social stigma. Many pregnant women went to India and other places either to terminate pregnancies or arrange deliveries. Many babies were born at home. But unfortunately, accurate or fairly reliable statistics are not available for any of these categories of victims. The situation has led us to make guesswork and presumptions about the number and fate of war-babies. Some limited evidences are to be found in government and non-government organisations records, and in records of foreign missions and missionary organisations.
An Italian medical survey, for example, put the number of victims at 40,000, the London-based International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) estimated it at 200,000. Dr. Geoffrey Davis, a social worker dealing with the management of war-babies at the time argued that the number could go higher. How many victims got pregnant and delivered babies is absolutely uncertain. A government estimate put it at 300,000. But the methodology adopted for reaching this figure was not sound. According to Dr. Davis, about 200,000 women became pregnant. But it was only his guess, not a study.
Newspaper reports of the time, which included interviews of Justice KM Sobhan, Chairperson, BWRP, Sister Margaret Mary of Missionaries of Charity, Dr. Geoffrey Davis, the IPPF personnel such as Odert von Shoultz, reveal that 23,000 abortions were performed at various Dhaka clinics by a team of British, American and Australian doctors, with assistance from some Bangali counterparts. In a sense, it makes the most comprehensive information on abortion in early 1972, following the arrival of the foreign doctors in Dhaka who set up several abortion/delivery clinics referred to as Seba Sadan in Dhaka.