The main focus of EMPOWER PEOPLE lies on awareness raising and sensitization trainings for law enforcement agencies. The organization is also offering direct victim support and assistance to women vulnerable to human trafficking and domestic violence. |
| Sikha Kumari at a news meet in Ranchi on Sunday. Picture by Hardeep Singh |
Ranchi, March 28: People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a human rights organisation, rescued city girl Sikha Kumari (18), who had been sold by her mother for Rs 50,000 to an elderly man in Rajasthan’s Jaipur.
The girl in tears narrated her plight at XISS this evening. Sikha said her mother had taken her to Jaipur, in the name of taking her to Howrah to see her maternal grandmother and then handed over her to an elderly person for marriage on March 5.
“My life would have become meaningless had PUCL not rescued me. I was trapped in a tricky situation. I had not only to fight with the person who was convincing me for marriage but also my younger sister and mother, who were fully induced by the elderly man,” she said.
Sikha was working at the residence of CCL employee Lipika Bhattacharya at Gandhinagar since her childhood. On February 22, her mother asked Bhattacharya that she wanted to take her daughter to Howrah to see her maternal grandmother.
On March 1, Sikha’s mother took her from Bhattacharya’s place. On March 5, her mother reached Jaipur instead of Howrah and handed over to the man, who started convincing her for marriage. But Sikha somehow managed to call Bhattacharya on March 5 itself. Bhattacharya tried to lodge an FIR at Gonda police station, but to no avail. The lady knocked the door of Ranchi University professor Ramesh Sharan, who suggested her to contact PUCL members.
Bhattacharya immediately contacted PUCL district vice-president and CCL employee, Kiran, who got in touch with national secretary Kavita Srivastava, who incidentally stays in Jaipur. Srivastava, with the help of Jaipur police, detected the girl and rescued her on March 13. She was first kept at a home there and then brought by Bhattacharya on March 21 to Ranchi after completing legal formalities.
No one was arrested in this connection, as Sikha did not want to harass her widow mother, who also works as a maid for livelihood. telegraphindia
Posted in: bride buying,bride trafficking in haryana,bride trafficking in india,Rescue
