Aatmaja was born into a “broken family”, where she saw her father, an alcoholic, abuse her mother everyday. Her mother took her anger and frustration out on Aatmaja, telling her that she was “an unwanted child and should have died the day she was born.” Shortly after her menstruation started, her mother arranged her marriage with a man who raped and abused her all night. “I was crying out and shouting with pain but he said, “This is the only reason why I married you and you are meant for this.” He tried stuffing stones in my vagina. He was psycho.”
One day Aatmaja had enough abuse and left her husbands house to go and live with her mother. She started teaching tailoring to a girl who lived far away. The two auto drivers, who became her friends, told her that they could get her a job in Delhi, teaching tailoring for 10,000 rupees a month. She decided to take the job because she “was seeing her mother suffer everyday; and she wanted to do something that could help.”
Next thing she knew, she was at G.B. Road, one of the largest brothel areas of New Delhi. She was then beaten and kept without food or water. Her first customer was a huge man who had a cynical smile. She says “how can I ever forget that dreadful night? My hands were tied to the bed, two people parted my legs and held them and the man raped me. He tore my body apart.” The customer then paid the brothel owner 5,000 rupees and Aatmaja was given 50 rupees.
Aatmaja says that after that day her life became a routine, having sex with many customers a day. One day a customer came that all the other girls refused to have sex with. The brothel owner made Aatmaja have sex with him without a condom. Later she heard the other girls saying he had a serious medical problem. She asked the brothel owner about it and she said, “Why do you have to know this. Your life ends here, so why think about living longer.”
One day an English man came to the brothel. He was sent to Aatmaja as a customer, but he didn’t even touch her. He was trying to talk to her, but she couldn’t understand, but she knew he was a kind man. The next week a man came to the brothel and took her away. She wasn’t sure what was happening but soon realize that she had been rescued. She was taken to the STOP family home where she met many other young girls like her.
One day, Aatmaja felt severe stomach pains and was taken to the hospital where she had kidney stones removed. After taking a blood test she found out that she was HIV+. She says that she doesn’t know how long she has to live, but is trying to make the best of each day, each moment that she is alive. Today she doesn’t feel ashamed to reveal that she is HIV+ and has learned to fight the trauma and disease. Now she has a mission, to work for other people with HIV/AIDS. Aatmaja says she is living a fulfilling life now.
Haima is from a traditional Muslim family and was born near Varanasi. She says she was one of “those ill-fated girl children, who are unwanted, while the family was desperate for a boy”. She never attended school and never had any friends. At 13 years old her family married her to a man who brutally raped her, she says “she started living life as a duty which every girl is forced to perform.”
After one year of marriage, her husband died. Her in-laws held her responsible for his death, calling her, “inauspicious for the family”. She was pregnant and decided to go back to her parent’s home, but her parents just considered her another burden. Haima says, “I questioned my own existence but had another life inside me and I had to take care of it”. Haima gave birth to a boy whom she named Asif, and it was the first time she was happy. Asif developed a skin infection and when she asked her mother to take him to the doctor, she refused. Haima decided to leave her family. She went to the nearest railway station, not sure where she would go. A lady named Reena saw Haima crying and asked her what was wrong. Haima told her everything. Reena invited Haima to come and live with her and promised that she would get her a job. After a month, Reena tricked Haima and sold her into sex slavery. When she refused to do the work, she was locked in a room for 2 days without food or water. Her son was then taken from her and she was told if she ever wanted to see him again she had to do this work. She cried in protest and was ruthlessly beaten. Eventually, Haima says that she “had no choice, but to give into my (her) destiny.” She began drinking, smoking and cutting her veins because she “did not wish to be in (her)my senses”. While at the beginning she was forced to work from a hotel, eventually she was shifted to G.B. Road to a brothel where she was “left open to the world of sex trade”. Haima says that even the police men were frequent visitors. One day, during a rescue operation led by STOP India, along with the police, Haima was taken out of the brothels. She did not give a statement for a long time, because Reena, the woman who trafficked her, sent her message that if she gave her name that she would kill Haima’s son. Eventually with the encouragement of Roma, the mother of STOP India, she gave her statement. Roma also helped her locate her son, who had been bought by an older couple who did not have children. They refused to give Haima her son, back and said they had taken very good care of him. She says she knows that they have nurtured him and at the end of the day, all she wants is a good future for her child, wherever he stays. Haima stayed at the STOP family home for a long time got married, and said that “STOP gave me a new life and also taught me to live life with dignity and face challenges courageously.Source: STOP INDIA!!
This is the true and harsh reality of India which is very less spoken of because we are the ONLY land of customs and traditions!! Pity.
#satyam_Bruyat
