AHMEDABAD: A young woman married for two years called the Abhayam women’s helpline, saying she could no longer live in peace in her own home — not because of financial hardship or marital conflict, but because her mother-in-law had made having a grandchild a round-the-clock project. The mother-in-law was tracking her menstrual cycle, demanding details about her physical relationship with her husband, and pressing the couple to conceive despite their decision to wait until the husband found employment.The woman, in her mid-20s, had already left home and stayed away for close to a year before returning about a fortnight ago. When the pressure started again, she called for help. “The family is well-to-do, but there’s no one who has a job currently. Her father-in-law retired as a senior bank official and gets a good pension. The family owns land and other properties through which they get good income. The woman’s husband is preparing for govt recruitment exams. The couple had decided together that they would start a family once he landed a job,” said a counsellor.However, the decision did not sit well with the mother-in-law, said counsellors, adding that she had her own context for the urgency. “She told us that she and her husband had conceived only after 20 years of marriage, following prolonged medical treatment and ‘blessings sought from every deity possible’. She was afraid her daughter-in-law would miss the window for a healthy pregnancy. She told the couple not to worry about expenses — that the family would take care of everything,” said a counsellor.The concern, however, turned into an obsession, according to the complaint by the daughter-in-law. She said that the mother-in-law demanded minute details about the couple’s physical relationship and monitored her menstrual cycle to advise her on the best days to conceive. The pressure grew severe enough that the woman left home and stayed away for close to a year. Before leaving, she told her mother-in-law to stop pressuring her and to instead speak to her own son about the matter.“She returned about a fortnight ago, and as the pestering started again, she decided to seek help. We counselled both sides, after which the mother-in-law promised us not to harass the woman,” said a counsellor.
