Purnima: Craving solitude

Midnapore, Jan. 22: About 70 women chat or play badminton or kho kho after a hard day of classes. But one woman in a white sari and green sweater does not join in.

Purnima Chatterjee, the widow of Dhananjoy who was hanged on August 14, 2004, for raping and murdering schoolgirl Hetal Parekh in 1990, is withdrawn. She does not speak to anyone at the training camp for anganwadi workers in Balarampur and hurries away when approached.

Purnima just watches when the others at the camp in Kharagpur, West Midnapore, let their hair down after classes end at 5 pm. In the evenings, she revises what she has learnt during the day at the centre 120 km from Calcutta.

The Jayprakash Institute of Social Changes is run by Abhay Ashram, a Balarampur-based non-government organisation, under the Centre-sponsored Integrated Child Development Scheme. The institute is the residential training centre for anganwadi workers of Bankura and Purulia who are engaged by the social welfare department to look after the health of women and children in rural areas.

Purnima was an anganwadi worker in Aria village in Chhatna area of Bankura district before Dhananjoy was hanged. On January 9, she was one of the 77 who arrived in Balarampur for the 54-day training that started the next day.

Social welfare department officials in Midnapore said that after Dhananjoy?s hanging the administration was unsure about where to send his widow for training as her face had become well known. ?Then we chose Balarampur from a list of three training centres,? said an official.

?Purnima was selected by the social welfare department for the training programme. We impart training to anganwadi workers so that they can take better care of mothers and children,? said Mrityunjoy Jana, the secretary of Abhay Ashram.

?Purnima is taking her training seriously like the others who are with her,? said Sandip Das, the principal of the institute. One of Purnima?s teachers, Kakali Bhunia, said she is very diligent.

?But she maintains a very low profile,? said Bhunia.

The people at the institute are protective about Purnima. ?She has undergone a personal tragedy but is trying her best to be in the mainstream. We have respect for her and so we are very protective about her,? said Amita Sarkhel, her fellow trainee.