Guwahati: In a show of sheer grit and perseverance, four Assam women have taken the burden of thousands of flood-hit families in three upper Assam districts of Sivasagar, Charideo and Jorhat, helping them to rebuild their lives, brick by brick.Archana Borthakur, 43, was watching news on floods on TV on July 20 night. The visuals she watched, she told TOI, made her feel an unexplainable pain core inside. It was about 10 PM, and she decided to leave for the three flood-hit districts next morning with some relief material, spending whatever amount of money she had, thinking that her presence near the affected families was the call of the hour.She asked her niece Luna Handique (40) to get ready to leave for the flood-affected districts. Thereafter, she picked up her phone and dialed Rumi Devi (35) of Jorhat and asked her to be ready to head towards the flood-affected villages. On July 21 morning, Archana bought some relief materials worth Rs 18,000, which she had with her, and left for Jorhat first with Luna.Luna told TOI that she was not at all ready for such activity and she does not have any experience. Still, she went with Archana with plenty of questions in mind covering about 300 km from Guwahati.Rumi, an employee of the National Health Mission in Jorhat who has known Archana for about two decades, said she did not hesitate when Archana called her around 10.45 pm on July 20. “Archana’s honesty and courage have always inspired me, and I had always wanted to work alongside her. But the scale of devastation was beyond anything I had imagined. Seeing the flood-hit villages firsthand completely changed my perception,” she said.“On the July 21, I joined Archana in Jorhat after my office hours. The next morning, I joined the Office Medical Team for field duty in the same area where relief was being distributed. I joined the team only after my office hours and on holidays,” she added, saying that she was committed to accompany Archana as a sister in the mission.A teacher at Dergaon Girls’ HS School, Kaberi Saikia (33), who knows Archana as an alumni of her school, who joined the team on July 24, said the destruction was unlike anything she had ever witnessed. “The scene in the villages, especially Hiloni Nepali Khuti, which was completely wiped out by the floods, is beyond words. A villager told us two bodies were still trapped beneath the silt and debris. The stench of decomposing cattle filled the air, and we felt we could come across a human body anywhere,” she said.“We don’t know how the four of us, along with our driver Maniram Rohang, managed to overcome every obstacle. But this experience has given us the confidence to do more. I had never even stepped into the pond at my own home before,” she added.The team travelled by car, tractor, country boat and on foot to reach 25 villages with relief materials. They navigated roads buried under mud and silt, crossed flood-ravaged villages and distributed food, clothes, medicines, hygiene kits and other essential supplies.The mission started with just Rs 18,000 has continuously been receiving support in terms of financial and material from across the country and abroad for the last 10 days.
