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.
Narendrapur (South 24-Parganas), Dec. 22:Rescued Bengal girl Yasmin Khatun today requested the CID to ensure she did not come face to face with her stepmother when the teenager is produced in Kakdwip court tomorrowYasmin (name changed), who was abducted from a village in South 24-Parganas in March 2009 and rescued by police from Delhi last week, has reportedly told CID officials and the authorities of the children’s home in Narendrapur where she has been kept for the past two days that her stepmother, Johora Biwi, was “showing fake concern” for her.
Yasmin would make a confessional statement in the court tomorrow. Johora, who played a key role in bringing the girl back, is expected to be present tomorrow as the court would decide where Yasmin will be taken next.
A senior CID official said today: “Yasmin has asked us to ensure that she doesn’t have to come face to face with Johora Biwi because she feels that her stepmother has done nothing for her. She has told us that Johora has been showing fake concern for her.” The official said Yasmin had told the CID that Johora was “least bothered” about her.
During her confessional statement before a child welfare committee (CWC) at Narendrapur yesterday, Yasmin claimed Johora’s attempts to trace her was a “pretence to express concern for her”. The girl laid bare everything she had gone through: beginning with her abduction and how she was sold off in April 2009 to how she found a “home” in New Delhi.
The three-member committee was reportedly shocked at the fact that a teenager harboured such “intense disgust” for her parents. Bijaylaxmi Kol, the chairperson of the CWC, South 24-Parganas, said: “This is a very rare case. The girl’s is a sad tale of exploitation, beginning with her family. Matters have come to such a pass that she would much rather believe the traffickers than her parents.”
Sources said Yasmin broke down while narrating her story to the CWC. After returning to the home from the hearing, a weeping Yasmin, dressed in a yellow salwar suit, told The Telegraph: “I have told them (the CWC) everything that I had gone through when I used to live with my parents (in Namkhana). Now I want to return to my mummy and papa in Delhi.”
Yasmin said she had complained about her father’s “foul behaviour” to her family members but to no avail.
THE TELEGRAPH
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