Products of one of the most outrageous crimes of the twentieth century, the 1971 war babies were conceived by Bangladeshi women who were the victims of sexual crimes committed by the Pakistani military personnel during the Bengalis’ struggle for independence. Having given birth in secret anywhere between late October 1971 and early September 1972, the distressed birthmothers chose to disappear in anonymity immediately after abandoning the newborns.
The war babies of Bangladesh bear the stigma of illegitimacy in the eyes of Bangladeshis as “disposable” and/or “throw-away” babies; as well, the having variously referred to them as the “unwanted” or the “unwelcome” children;” the “enemy children;” the “illegitimate children;” the “children of mixed blood;” the “offspring of depravity;” the “segregation of bad seeds;” and, more contemptuously, the “bastards.” In the same vein, their birthmothers have also been variously referred to as the “violated women,” the “dishonored women;” the “distressed women;” the “rape victims;” the “victims of military repression;” the “affected women;” and sometimes with an empathetic intonation, the “unfortunate” women of Bangladesh.
1971 “war babies” should not to be confused with either the “war orphans” or the “abandoned children” as one tends to use these terms interchangeably even though they are different. Within the context of 1971, the term “war orphans” refers to Bangladeshi children orphaned during the war due to the death or disappearance of their parents. As a group, they are also referred to, as the “abandoned children” who were not necessarily born in 1971 or 1972. Since they had lost their parents, technically speaking, they were deemed orphans. Their situation is quite different from the 1971 “war babies.” Like the “war babies” these “war orphans” were not the product of military rape in “Occupied Bangladesh.” All “war babies” born as a result of rape by the Pakistani military personnel are also “war orphans” as their birthmothers or the putative fathers had ever claimed them. It is important to keep the difference in mind.
Historical Context: Rape and Sexual Violence in “Occupied Bangladesh”
Raping of thousands of Bengali women by the Pakistani military personnel consisting of officers, soldiers and jawans (foot soldiers) during the period the Army was engaged in crushing the liberation movement would remain meaningless unless one can demonstrate a causal relationship of rape and enforced pregnancy. One must bear in mind how sexuality and militarism of the Pakistani Army were intertwined amidst fear of guerilla attack, loneliness and moral degradation among the lusty military men.
One is very likely to fail to piece together the various components, such as abduction, confinement, rape, murder, enforced pregnancy, birth and consequent mass abandonment of the war babies that fit together in the historical narrative. Today the most popularly-accepted figures within Bangladesh, and reported in many external sources, are that, up to 3 million people were killed or tortured to death; 200,000 women were raped in organized camps of which a large number of such rape victims were subjected to forced pregnancy; and approximately 4000 babies were born as a result of rapes.
Incidence of Rape, Pregnancy and Abortion
Rape and Enforced Pregnancies
The first difficulty in reconstructing the events is that there is no data to undertake any study on the war babies. The corroboration of allegations is complicated by the incomplete and fragmentary nature of historical data concerning sexual violence and its aftermath. An Italian medical survey that many talk about frequently, but without any appropriate or specific bibliographic citation, puts the number of victims at 400,000; the newspapers of the day also quoted numbers that are much higher than 400,000. The London-based International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) estimated the number at 200,000.
With no definite number of rape victims, it is even harder to determine how many rape victims became pregnant - a possibility that remained certain as late as the first quarter of 1972. As the story goes through hearsay and innuendoes, the captive Bengali women were forcefully impregnated and many were held captive as sex slaves. Ferdousi Priyobhashini is the first rape victims to come out in public to testify to the news media the precarious conditions of the helpless captives. The long and the short of it is that it did happen - in the nature of things.
Death during childbirth and Abortion
There is no record on the death of the expectant mothers during childbirth although there are references to the fact that many pregnant rape victims had died during childbirth. The closest description is again from Dr. Geoffrey Davis who came from London as IPPF’s representative, was alarmed at the existing situation at the time as those with major complications hade, by February 1972 had died and the number involved is not known.
Understandably, there is no reliable number for the incidence of abortion. Evidence of abortion, however, ties in quite well with the overall picture of enforced pregnancies. Detailed field reports from each district, under the signature of the Deputy Commissioner, the Civil Surgeon, and the Family Planning Officer of each city, are important sources of information with regard to abortion in 1972. But no one could assign a particular number to the incidence of abortions performed (generally without the knowledge of anyone) across Bangladesh in 1971.
Another source of abortion by pregnant rape victims come from many families that had slipped into India to have abortions performed in 1971, a practice that had continued by many families in utmost secret even right after independence. According to Dr. Davis, although the incidence of abortion tended to be exaggerated, between 150, 000 and 170, 000 of the 200, 000 who fell pregnant were aborted in highly undesirable but unavoidable conditions before the outside world even knew the problem existed.
Incidence of Birth, Death and Abandonment
Birth
The Missionaries of Charity’s the Dhaka-based Shishu Bhavan,, commonly referred to as “Mother Teresa’s Home,” had kept some records of the war babies that were born there and were brought in for adoption. These records that now constitute a rich body of rare historical information on the war babies of Bangladesh might be seen as prima facie evidence of sexual violence and its aftermath in Bangladesh. The Canadian team under the stewardship of Fred and Bonnie Cappuccino that visited Bangladesh in June 1972 to pick up a handful of war-babies for adoption in Canadian homes is another source of information for the war babies observed that 5,000 was a reasonable conjecture.
Death and Abandonment
Throughout early 1972, there were rumors of babies secretly buried in bags or sacks by close relatives to avoid shame and disgrace. It is also rumored that under such circumstances, many dead babies were wrapped in cloth and were simply dumped in holes or thrown into nearby canals and rivers. Medical professionals maintained that there were many who were so weak and so sick that they had perished immediately following their birth. The Canadian team remains the first-hand observer of the grim situation in the orphanages premises where many newborns did not survive. Ironically enough, what the desperate birthmothers had tried through abortion (termination of life) was eventually achieved in reality immediately after the birth of the infants through instant death.
Abandonment
Variously referred to as abandonment, relinquishment, surrender, or giving up of the “unwanted” babies who were being born right up to early September 1972, there is again no quantitative information in this regard. The orphanage authority became the care-giver/taker of such infants while the government of Bangladesh became their “statutory guardian.”
War-babies vis-à-vis Bangladeshi historical establishment
Unfortunately, the writers of Bangladeshi history have left out the tragic stories of the “dishonored” women and their abandoned babies alleged to have been fathered by the Pakistani military personnel.
The lack of documentary evidence, will soon acquaint one with the complexities and problems inherent in the study of the war babies. One may start with some of the following broad questions: What do the people of Bangladesh know about the war babies? Who are the war babies? Where are the women victims of 1971 today? What do they do for a living? Do the people of Bangladesh know their whereabouts? Bangladeshis are sadly unaware, uninformed or even misinformed about the war babies.
Government's initiatives with respect to rape victims and birthmothers
The first, and most important, initiative of the government was the creation Bangladesh Women’s Rehabilitation Program (BWRP) on 18 February 1972 with two broad goals: (1) to organize clinical services wherever possible in Bangladesh within the limited time span of three to four months to provide medical treatment to the rape victims; and (2) to plan, organize and establish facilities and institutions, specially vocational training centers, to effectively rehabilitate thousands of destitute women in needing immediate help.
Seeking innovative ways to enhance the self-esteem of the rape victims and their status, the government honored the unsung heroines by giving them the title Birangana (Rape survivors of 1971, a title in recognition of their sacrifice in the war of independence) as a symbol of honor and courage.
Government’s Initiatives in Inter-country adoption and Recommendations
Working with the Geneva-based International Social Service (ISS), the government sought creative programs that were future-oriented and transformative keeping in mind “the best interest of the child.” The ISS recommended inter-country adoption as an alternative in light of the prevalent socio-religious values of Bangladesh with a view to finding families for children and not children for families. The two most important unanswered questions were: how to link the war-waifs in need of a safe and secured home? And, how could the government link its own accountability within the broad social environs in the newly-created country?
Amidst diverse viewpoints, the government was able to finalize a special provision on guardianship for the “abandoned children” that was signed by the Prime Minister in early October 1972 believing that it was doing something constructive to make life more real for the babies thought of as “disposable” by the society at large. The government promulgated the new Presidential Order entitled The Bangladesh Abandoned Children (Special Provisions) Order, 1972 in October 1972. It was however, repealed through a proclamation of March 24, 1984. In it, the government emphasized that, once adopted, the legal rights of the babies be recognized as the children of the adoptive parents, “as if begotten,” a status that was no different from a biological child born to the child’s adoptive parent. In this context, the government saw the war babies’ adoption by foreign parents as a rescue operation by a group of long-serving dedicated people outside Bangladesh as their salvation.
Adoption within Bangladesh
In the absence of any data, it stands to reason to maintain a position along the following line: that nobody is known to have come forward, not even a local house of worship (such as, mosque, temple or pagoda, with the exception of Mother Teresa’s the Missionaries of Charity) social service agencies, hospitals, family physicians, relatives of family friends, to adopt a war baby. If anyone did so, one must have done it secretly having guarded such secret till this day. In seeking any quantitative information on the birth, death, abandonment and adoption of these babies, one has to be content with the fact that there is no reliable record in Bangladesh other than the numbers generated by word of mouth. There is various documentary evidence that, by late fall (1972), there were very few war babies left for adoption although there were war-orphans still available for adoption.
Canadian initiative in adopting the war babies
The Dhaka-based Missionaries of Charity and the Montreal-based non-profit agency for international adoption, Families For Children (FFC), worked together to bring certain war babies in Canadian homes. When the first contingent of 15 war babies from Bangladesh arrived in Canada on July 20, 1972, they received comprehensive media coverage for days with the message was that interracial adoption programs were a positive initiative and that Canadians of diverse backgrounds should endorse such initiatives. Other countries, such as, the U.S.A., the U.K., France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Australia, to name a few, had also adopted Bangladeshi war babies through organizations, such as, the Holt Adoption Program, Inc. and Terre des Hommes. Unfortunately, there is hardly any documentary evidence available either on the such war babies’ journey to their countries of adoption or to their adoption outcome.
In its decision in 2014, the International War Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh has rendered that the war babies ought to be given compensation and that their birthmothers be given the honour they deserve. While a few rape victims have thus far come out in public, not a single war baby (now aged 44) has come out yet to self-identify. Let us hope that Bangladeshi society is ready to embrace them if and when they come out.
Mustafa Chowdhury
E-mail: Mustafa.chowdhury49@gmail.com
Author of the following three books: ‘71-er Judhoshishu : Obidito Itihash, Academic Press and Publishers Library, Dhaka 2015; Picking Up the Pieces : 1971 War Babies’ Odyssey from Bangladesh to Canada, Xlibris, Bloomington, Indiana, USA (2015); UNCONDITIONAL LOVE : Stories of 1971 War Babies, Academic Press and Publishers Library, 2016.