Shelter for Women Escaping Trafficking & Abuse

Parul came in touch with MissingLink when her poor parents were no longer able to take care of her along with her two young children (5 and 6years old) and asked her to return to her abusive husband. Her ordeals however started about 8 years back when she was married off as a 17yrs old teenager. Her husband, a casual labor in the construction industry was not happy with the marriage the parents arranged. He therefore always found faults in Parul and found every excuse to physically abuse her.  After a few years of going through this and two children later, Parul got to know that her husband remarried and didn’t have any plan to return (was he in any other state?) or financially support them. Her in-laws blamed Parul for "losing their son " . It is after all a woman's job to keep her husband interested in the family. The in-laws did not stop at physically abusing Parul and her sons; they also started making them go hungry. Parul had no choice but to return to her father’s house. She has no education and no skill to fend for herself. The best she could do was to start rolling bidi or making local cigarettes. It is a common work that many women of poor families do from their home to make some extra cash. However, it was the only source of income for Parul. The market rate of this work is Rs.80 or $1.16 for rolling a thousand cigarettes.  Parul’s income from bidi making was definitely not sufficient to feed all three mouths. Moreover, Parul’s aged and poor parents wanted her to accept the abusive life at her in-laws due to the social pressure. When MissingLink’s rural outreach worker got to know about Parul she suggested that Parul should come to the shelter for further support. Parul visited the shelter and received legal casework support. The team also met with the parents and tried to resolve the living situation. Her case was taken to the Family Court. The Court ordered that Parul’s husband must pay for alimony and child care support. Parul in the meantime met other survivors while staying in the shelter. She is now part of the Survivors Network and come for regular skill building training programs. Parul also keeps a watch on other cases of domestic violence and possible trafficking in her immediate area. With every successful case, MissingLink’s strength through network of empowered women in the community increases. This acts as positive catalyst in prevention of trafficking, child marriage, and domestic violence against women. 

Parul’s case was amongst 14 other cases that MissingLink directly provided support to in the last quarter. Our outreach team reached out to hundreds of young women in the community and provided counselling support and information to deal with their respective domestic abuse situations. We continue to deliver individual casework support with your help. MissingLink is formed with the faith that common people will lend a hand to help those in need. They will support those who hardly have any other opportunity to come out of systemic societal abuse. We are changing these lives together. When one Parul lives without fear of getting abused and send her children to school, we as a community make one step forward towards a better future for all. Let’s keep up the momentum and this #BonusDay on JULY 18 Let's double our impact! keep on supporting each other! Let us make a better tomorrow! 

*Name and photos are changed to protect identity

Minati’s* case reached MissingLink team from the government hospital when she gave birth to her baby boy in February 2019. Like every other case that reaches the doorstep of the shelter her plight was no less. The biggest of all was giving birth out of wedlock. Her orthodox native village didn’t allow her to live at her mom’s with her newborn as they outcasted Minati and felt she would be bad influence to other young girls in the village. Minati’s mother lives in constant fear for her life and her frail mud house that was her only shelter in life. MissingLink is equipped to serve up to five women at a time in the shelter and unfortunately it was full when Minati’s case came in. Looking at the severity of the case and life-threatening situation we channelized extra fund towards adding a new bed for Minati and her new born in the shelter. New born in the shelter is always a dilemma and we felt torn at the situation. Currently MissingLink is taking care of Minati’s postnatal nutritional necessities and the infant is receiving care through the government hospital.

Her story began few years ago when a trusted neighbor promised her a better paying job in the city. She was in her early 20s. Minati’s father passed away long back. The poor mother had no choice than letting Minati go with the hope that Minati’s earning would provide a better future for all of them. They hardly imagined what waited for them in the future- they just thought about saving the roof over their head and food to survive. Once she reached the city she started working as a labor in construction site where she was also sexually exploited by the men. After two years of painful living condition she could get a small sigh of relief or so it seemed. She met Sanju, an acquaintance from her village. She fell for Sanju and somehow managed to escape the construction work. She got job as maid in the city households. Sanju promised to marry her although he was already married and was father of a child. His family lived in the village.   Mianti was unaware of it. As these happened after she left the village. Sanju and Minati started staying together until Minati got pregnant. Later Sanju denied marrying Minati and taking responsibility of the child.

Minati is under tremendous stress and trauma and not ready to file a case against Sanju yet. We are providing her counseling. We respect her decision and our main focus is to provide her a safe and peaceful environment and building support around her.  She said she would like to learn a skill to earn living for herself. MissingLink team is currently working with her on her future goals and supporting her journey towards independent empowered life.

Other than handling Minati’s case the shelter was full during the period with other five cases. It is humbling to see how important the service is. All residents are receiving their respective case support, nutritional meals and shelter. The support team made several home visits to the homes of other potential victims of domestic abuse and trafficking. Legal team helped 12 other cases of domestic violence, 13 women received vocational training through our network, 15 beneficiaries of the project formed a support group to help new cases and six children from the homes of domestic violence were restored for shelter home and cottage home for schooling, counseling and trauma management under the legal guidance of Child Welfare Committee.

Unfortunately the need is greater than what the team can provide at this moment. Hence, your support is more important now than ever before. Help us to spread the word on MissingLink so that we can reach out to more Minatis. Support us find more MissingLinks like you who would be happy to lend their hands for more Minatis.

*Name changed to maintain confidentiality

*Photo is just the representation of the cases we receive and not of the same victim/beneficiary mentioned in the report. Used with permission.