30. Case 3:

In March 2008, a Biswakarma woman of Shirsa Dadeldhura started labour pain in the night and jethani deurani (husband's elder and younger brothers' wives) women in the neighborhood gathered to support her. The labour prolonged for the whole day without delivery, so they asked the husband to take her to hospital. Instead, he scolded and even attacked to beat them. But they ran away. Later in the night, the women called the TBA who pulled the baby out and cut the umbilical cord with a blade. The mother's body was swollen after 2-3 days but she was not taken to the hospital, the TBA gave her local medicine. As of luck, she recovered and the TBA was rewarded with a khasi (male goat) worth Rs. 2000 (US$ 31 apprx.). This family is illiterate and poor. This is his second wife. His first wife ran away because he tortured her all the time. He used to force her to work transporting soil while she was pregnant. Due to this, she miscarriaged a baby boy but he accused her killing his son and chased her away from home. He was intoxicated all day. He never allowed his wife to go in public and group meetings. If she does, he scolds and beats after she returns home.

As reported in the Case 1, and 2, the in-laws are conservative letting their daughter-in-laws to go for care seeking including husbands (Case 3). Power with seeking care is most important among women but still lag far behind. The 'collective power' gained from the mothers group is proving the best with the initiation of the projects in the communities. As one KI from Chitwan gives example saying - 'A strict mother-in-law, especially Brahmin/Chhetri, tells her daughter-in-law do heavy work as it keeps fit to the pregnant women and would be easier to deliver. Her mother-in-law will scold her otherwise saying' - "Why are you pretending? Are you the only one who has been pregnant? We also had nine or ten babies. If I had shared such problems with others, everyone would laugh at me."

The mother-in-laws mostly control their daughter-in-laws freedom. This trend may have been happened from generation to generation. Because of this, each of the in-law wants to control her daughter-in-law as she was controlled by her in-law (Case 4).