Having lost her parents, 14-year-old Rupali (name changed) used to stay with her grandparents in Assam’s Sonitpur district. Owing to their poor financial condition, she had to drop out of school when she was in Class 5. Taking advantage of the family’s economic condition, a trafficker – who initially posed as a well-wisher – lured her with the false promise of a monthly salary of Rs 8000 if she agreed to shift to Delhi in December 2019.
Lured by the prospect of earning a monthly salary, she travelled to the national capital and landed at a placement agency who placed her as a domestic help at a house in Haryana’s Rohtak. Soon she realised that she had trapped as she was subjected to constant physical and mental abuse and denied her wages.
She was then shifted by the agency to another house in Delhi’s Rajouri Garden but physical abuse and mental torture continued. Her employers used to beat her up every now and then. She worked there for about a year and 4 months and managed to call up the placement agency and said she wanted to go back home.
The agency called her back to their office and one day she managed to call up her uncle in Assam and narrate her ordeal and said she wanted to go back home as she was trapped by the agency but was in no position to since her money had been taken away by them and she was left virtually penniless.
Deeply disturbed, her uncle spoke to someone in Assam who informed BBA about the Rupali’s predicament. As soon as the information was received, all necessary details were gathered by the BBA team to facilitate her rescue from the agency.
Post verification of details and recce of the location, a rescue team was constituted by SDM Punjabi Bagh on July 9, 2021, and Rupali was rescued in at about 7 pm by the efforts of Bachpan Bachao Andolan. Her statement was recorded before the SDM and other formalities are under process.
She will be produced before the Child Welfare Committee and will be reunited with her family soon.