She is a seventeen-year-old girl from
Jharkhand Simdega District. She had come to work in Mumbai on 8th
December 2015 in order to help her family. In the process of finding work she met
her neighbor (from Jharkhand) a friend. In fact it was this person who told her
that in Bandra there is work and they will pay her more. That’s how the girl
came along to work at Bandra at Mr. Suresh Kumar's house on February 11th
2015. (names changed to protect the identity of the victim and the perpetrator)
The new employers were kind and amiable
during the first two months. However, the honeymoon phase only lasted so long
and within the third month, the abuse began. After starting at her new
workplace, she never saw her friend again. The man, for whom she worked, looked
for any excuse to beat her. For example, if his child cried, she was held
responsible because the child was placed under her care and therefore,
consequently she received a beating. Another example would be, if the child
wasn’t dressed for school on time, she was physically punished. The beatings
took place anytime, for any slight reason. She was also beaten with any objects
in sight such as the rolling pin, frying pan, belt, etc... As part of the
abuse, her cellular device was confiscated as well as her identity card. She
was not allowed to leave the house except to drop off the child at school and
even then, she was given a 10 minutes’ window or else she was punished. As per
the agreement she made with her employers during the time of her employment,
she was supposed to get paid Rs.8000 per month. However, they never paid her at
all. Leave alone her salary, she was not allowed to call her family members and
if they ever called her, Mrs Kumar either hung up the phone or told her family
members that she was unavailable to talk. During one such incident, Mr. Kumar
threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone about the way they treated her, She
was then beaten to the point of unconsciousness. He placed fear in her thus
keeping her silent.
On January 15th 2016, the victim
dropped off the child to school like every other day however this day, she
caught the attention of the teachers who saw marks and bruises all over her
arms and face. They questioned her with carefully, wanting to help her. She
finally told them that she was being mistreated and did not want to return to
the house.
The teachers were from St.Andrews School
and so they called the parish office seeking advice on how to handle the
situation. The parish office referred them to the Centre for Social Action
(CSA) social worker Ms.Premlata Kumari who works for the Community Centre Organization
(CCO) office at St.Andrew’s Church, Bandra.
When the CSA social worker, Ms.Premlata
Kumari, met the victim for the first time, she was broken and desperately seeking help away from
her abusers. Victim was asked why she didn’t leave sooner or seek help sooner
and her response was that she was in need of the money however now, she feared
for her life more than she cared about the money. The first thing Premlata did
when victim was in her care was she called her family asked her to speak to her
family whom she had not spoken to for 8 months.
When she spoke to them, her family was filled with relief and joy
because they thought that their daughter was dead. They had been grieving the
death of their eldest daughter for so many months and even offered masses in
her remembrance so she could rest in peace. After the family was notified,
Premlata filed a police case against the employers at the Bandra police
station.
She in fact made accommodation for the
girl at URJA Women Rehabilitation Centre Dadar, for a week . However, being a
minor, that was a challenge and they were not willing to accommodate her but
after our request they were ready to keep her for few days. Meanwhile, with the
police case, the police officers suggested that the girl be handed over to them
and they would place her in a CWC that is a Childrens Home in Dongri while the
case goes on. Premlata felt uneasy with the suggestion because of the
uncertainty of victim’s safety and comfort. Instead, she pushed for a
settlement between both parties and kept looking for accommodation because URJA
could only keep the girl for a week since she was a minor.
Victim was not wanting to charge the
family criminally therefore it was no longer a criminal case but a civil case
so the police closed the case.
Premlata Kumari became the mediator of
the case. Over the course of a week, the settlement discussions went back and
forth between social worker and police. As a social worker, Premlata was
fighting for the justice of victim and fair settlement for both.
Finally, Premlata was warned by the
senior inspector that if you want justice give us the girl or else anything
happens you are in our watch. It is a serious case does not take on yourself.
Until you give us the girl we cannot do anything. In that desperate situation
Premlata strongly told the Inspector that she will do it however difficult and
see that justice is done to the victim.
This was a big challenge between the
victim and employer. She was concerned for both but she also has more concerned
for the victim. Premlata asked the employer to give all the belongings of the
victim or else she has to follow the process of court. Finally they agreed and
victim received all her belongings and cash she was due. Then Premlata
transferred all the money to the victims mothers bank account and booked the ticket
for the victim after getting permission
of her and her family and put her in the train. She reached her home safely and
informed us. She is very happy being reunited with her family.
Acknowledgements:
I thank Fr. Caesar the Parish Priest,
Fr.Joe,Thelma, Reynold, Mervyn and Mohan for helping me in various ways to help
the victim. We also thank the St.Anne’s Sisiers Sr. Shobha for accommodating
the victim during the interim periods. All’s well that ends well, especially in
this ‘Year of Mercy’
Ms. Premlata Kumari
CSA Social Worker
St. Andrew's CCO, Bandra
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