NAHARLAGUN, 24 May: A victim of domestic violence and bonded labour has been rescued by Women Helpline-181 (WHL) with the help of the police and the state legal services authority.
She, along with her two minor children, has been rehabilitated at the Oju Welfare Mission.
As per the victim’s statement, the WHL said, she got married to a person from Assam four years ago. It was just one month since their marriage when her husband started torturing her.
She said that her husband tortured her every day, both physically and mentally, for four years. She sought divorce but her husband turned it down. He even refused to give her official documents, she said.
Thereafter, the victim took shelter at her husband’s elder brother’s house for 2-3 days. After a few days, she along with her two children ran off and reached the Banderdewa check gate, where her husband intercepted her and forcibly took back their children to Assam.
Dumbstruck by the incident, the victim said, she stood at the check gate alone for a long time.
“In the meantime, an APST lady approached me and took me to her house in Doimukh with a promise to offer a job and file a case against my abusive husband,” she said.
Later on, she started working as a domestic help in the lady’s house.
After a few days, the daughter of the lady visited them and urged the woman to work for her. She promised her comfortable stay and a good pay check as she required additional help, the victim said.
After a few days, the victim started working as a domestic help at her new owner’s house in Itanagar. The new owners restricted her from going out and, at times, they even forcibly locked her up inside the house.
After a few months, she managed to escape and reached the police station in Naharlagun for help in October 2020. The case was immediately forwarded to WHL-181.
She was provided help and assistance by the WHL team. Later, she was given shelter at the short-stay home run by the Oju Welfare Association (OWA) as she was seven months pregnant at the time. She delivered a healthy baby girl during her stay at the shelter home.
Later on, her case was forwarded to the Arunachal Pradesh State Legal Services Authority (APSLSA), and the legal counsel took up the case at the appropriate court, enabling her to take custody of her two children.
Later on, the WHL, in coordination with the Naharlagun police and the Laluk (Assam) police, approached the sufferer’s husband in order to take custody of the children.
After constant pressure from both the police teams, the husband brought the two children before the police in Laluk. The children were brought back safely to Arunachal and reunited with their mother.
The victim has been provided a job in the OWA campus by OWA chairperson Ratan Anya, while her two children are being provided with free education up to Class 10 at the Oju Mission School.
The WHL thanked the APSLSA and the police teams of Naharlagun and Laluk for taking prompt action and providing valuable service in rescuing the woman.
“Such kind of teamwork and combined effort always encourage us to work harder to achieve greater success in providing help and assistance to distressed women and children,” WHL project manager Binny Yachu said in a release.