How Assam’s Runjun Begum, victim of domestic violence, became a change leader

In 2021, Assam laid claim to probably one, if not the most, unwanted records: in September 2021, for the fourth year in a row, Assam recorded the highest crime rate against women. According to IndiaSpend, the crime rate of rape per 100,000 female population increased 33 per cent in Assam between 2005 and 2019. If this seems high, then consider this: the rape is ‘much lower’ to the rise in violence (409 per cent), molestation (309 per cent), and kidnapping (267 per cent), NCRB data showed.

For the longest time, Runjun Begum, a resident of Rangia in lower Assam, remained another person in the statistics on violence. On more than one occasion, she contemplated suicide. Finally, one day, unable to bear physical and mental torture from her husband and in-laws, she fled her home intending to end her life. But fate had other plans, and a decade later, she has become a shining example of women from marginalised communities who have gone on to establish themselves as entrepreneurs. 

All that Begum remembers from that fateful night is being in a daze: somehow, she ended up boarding a bus from her native town, and before she could figure out much, she had reached Jalukbari in Guwahati.