When government announced plans to construct a hydro-power dam at Nyabarongo River, residents around the area immediately saw job opportunities that would help them elevate their livelihoods and be able to afford a descent life. Indeed for many of them, it was an opportunity of a lifetime.

So, the first group of Indians arrived in 2009 and, before long, construction kicked off. Casual labourers from all around the area lined up for jobs and among them were four women, who now say what they initially saw as a shot at having a better life later turned into a hurtful experience.

The four women were residents of Mushishiro Sector in Ngororero District, Southern Province.

They were not married and the youngest was aged 18 at the time.

The quartet—Marie Solange Mukandayisenga, Clémentine Bankunde, Ernestine Nyirahabimana and Solange Mukaneza—now say they are victims of a short lifetime pleasure that has turned into a burden for them.

The common factor among these women is that each of them has bore a kid fathered by Indian men who were working at the construction site. That wouldn’t have been a problem at all if the men had taken care of their children.

The site was run by Angelique International Limited, an Indian firm.

They shared their experience with The New Times.

"We met these men at the construction site and they made all sorts of promises to us. They rented for us houses at Mushishiro trading centre and we lived together like married couples but trouble set in when we started to get pregnant,” said Mukaneza.

Mukaneza is a 30-year-old mother to a one year and seven months old boy, Aiderai Ramji. Her case though is further complicated by the fact that her ‘baby-daddy’ also had another baby with Nyirahabimana, 23, whom he left with a one-year-old baby Rajo.

Nyirahabimana says: "When construction kicked off, we got employed and we warmed up to the men. After some time we started sleeping with them. Since our homes were far, they rented houses for us and we moved in with them. Umess, who impregnated me and Solange Mukaneza, had been around for four years.”

However, Mukandayisenga, 28, has documented proof of the father of her child admitting that the child is his, a chance the rest didn’t get. "The father of my child, Dan Bahadur, accepted the child and gave her the name Sunita Pooja. Later, we went to the district headquarters and registered the child. He took care of the child until last year when he was leaving saying that he was going on holiday.”

But she’s uncertain her man will come back. "Since he left, he has called a couple of times with promises of coming back but I think it is a way to keep me quiet.”

She says Bahadur left her with Rwf200,000 to look after the child during his absence but she has since used all of it and has nothing left. "I don’t think he’ll ever come back because the project is almost done. I have lost all hope and don’t know where to turn to next.”

A situation of uncertainty is also echoed by 23-year-old Bankunde whom Raju, the father of her two-year-old son, left her with just Rwf40,000 and also promised to be back.

"He left when the kid was six months old in 2012. The money was not enough but since he promised to come back, I trusted him but now I feel let down. I decided to make a living by doing casual work like digging on other people’s farms because I don’t have breast milk and my child has since lived on porridge, but even flour is hard to come by.”

Bankundiye adds that she has no one to turn to since she never got to know her parents and her grandmother mistreats her. She has sought help from company officials but nothing has been done so far.

Denial and false hopes

As if having to deal with their "husbands” false hopes wasn’t enough, even the few who had been registered in the company (Angelique International Limited) have not received anything.

With the exception of Bahadur, the rest had initially denied fathering the children until they had to be convinced that the kids resembled them and they should take responsibility.

"When I was giving birth, I underwent C-section but I had to go through the pain alone. Umess denied the child and even asked me if we can go for a DNA test in Gitarama town. I told him that it was fine but he dropped the idea.

"He took me to the company and registered me as the beneficiary of some of his money. He left me with Rwf150,000 before he left to buy milk for the child but ever since the money got finished, the company has never given me any coin,” says Mukaneza.

Although Mukaneza says that Umess had allowed going with her at the district headquarters to register the child, she was unable to make it since she was burying her father around the time when Umess left for India.

Bankunde also faced similar challenges when the man responsible for her child decided to always hide down in the lower levels of the construction site where she couldn’t get access.

"When I decided to forcefully enter the place, the security personnel at the construction site took me to the police station in Mushishiro and they kept me there for one night after beating me for requesting money from him,” she claims.

After that incident, she tried to seek justice at Gatumba court of law but her case was thrown out since the court claimed they had no jurisdiction over foreigners working at the site, she tells The New Times.

What local leaders say about the case?We knew about the case recently when the women went to protest at the construction site. Since we don’t have any means possible to help them, we advised them to seek legal redress but cautioned them against protesting. We hope they are helped. Béatrice Uwamariya – Executive Secretary, Mushishiro Sector

Threats

The women charge that, in their quest to seek help from their men and authorities, they were threatened and eventually some of them coiled in their corners as they resigned to fate. After Bankunde was beaten and thrown in the coolers for a night, her child’s father didn’t make it easier for her either.

"The next time I saw him, he told me that if I can’t look after my child then I should hand him over to him and he drowns him in the river. That scared me away and I left. Days later, he looked for me and gave me Rwf40,000. Not only that, even local authorities told us not to disturb the men again. That is why it was so difficult for us to get access to them.”

Challenges

Their main challenge now is how to look after the children. The women have since gone back to their previous homes after being evicted by their landlords over failure to pay rent.

Mukaneza says: "We couldn’t work after giving birth and the Indians were the ones taking care of us. We are now stranded and don’t even have medical insurance for our children. Life is really difficult for us and we have nowhere else to turn to for assistance.”

Although absentee fathers are not a new phenomenon, the most intriguing thing is that it is almost unheard of for Indians to have children outside their caste, at least in this part of the world.

The New Times tried to contact the regional manager of Angelique International Limited, Gopi Krishna but the person who received the call said the manager was out of the country. The acting manager Annil Kumar declined to give a comment since he is not in position to speak on behalf of the company.

When The New Times contacted the President of the Indian Association in Rwanda, Mohammed Salim, he said he wasn’t aware of the situation since the men were not members of the association.

"I’m not aware of the situation but I am going to inquire and find out what is going on. They come and go back after their work is done, so we usually don’t get to know them. Secondly, that place is far which makes it even more difficult for us to keep tabs on them,” he said.

Salim promised to find out what the problem is and contact us in due time.