On reaching New Delhi Railway Station, Amar asked Bhavani to stay with her cousin till he made arrangements for family accommodation. Her cousin’s house turned out to be a brothel on G B Road, the red light area in New Delhi. Bhavani’s trial began the very next day when she was asked to pander to a customer. She then came to know that she had been sold for a sum of Rupees 45 thousand. She was then told by other girls that her ‘husband’ had married twelve times in that very year itself.
Her resistance was accompanied with a lot of beatings and starvation in return. After seven days of struggle Bhavani gave in. After five abortions and innumerable sexually transmitted infections, Bhavani today at the age of 17 yrs is rescued and “HIV positive.”
Another case is of Pranitha, a 4-year-old girl, whose mother was into prostitution, she couldn't fetch enough money for her survival as she was infected with HIV. During the last stage of Aids,she sold her daughter to a broker. By the time she could be rescued she was already raped by three men. Shaheen, another girl, was found lying on a railway track. Her details couldn't be traced. By looking at her one could easily figure out she was raped, not once but numerous times. The indication on her body about the grotesque was that her intestine came outside the body, 32 stitches were required to bring her back in form.
On her journey to rescue and rehabilitate young girls of 3 years to women as old as 45 years, she went through a lot of challenges. But giving in was not what she had learnt, if so then she would have had succumbed while returning from the school for underprivileged children which she had started at the age of 15. Sunitha was gang-raped by eight men on her way back, she could have surrendered when she was beaten up more then 14 times for working for her mission.
Krishnan is an epitome of hope for the ones who have seen this face of the world,who have faced this level of inhumane treatment. “Society makes you feel cheap. "I chose not to feel like a victim. I am not a victim. I am a survivor. I speak about it with a lot of pride, because I am proud of what I have become today. I have not done a mistake. I don’t want my face to be blurred. I am not to be ashamed for. The guys that have done it should be hiding their faces and they should be blurring their faces." She says she seeks response and not charity from the people, she asks from the people to have an open-minded attitude. She requests the society for acceptance and to break the culture of silence when such issues are concerned. Her conviction grows stronger with every passing day and according to her it is only then one can rightly claim the world to be a better place to live in, when the utterly dejected, extremely ostracised and the most excluded are brought together. The onus is on us to change our outlook and help in bringing the change in the society as a whole.
Author:
G. Geeta Kumari (ggeeta3010@gmail.com)
PGDM Rural Management, XISS, Ranchi
