While last year’s Eid was spent in the company of great friends, this year was markedly different…’how different?’ – well I’m at a loss of words really; trying hard to describe what this special day was like this time around. I got a call in the wee hours, on that day – a lady’s voice it was - speaking frantically, the tension almost evident in every syllable that she uttered! It was Prerna, my neighbour’s maid – asking me for an urgent help. “My niece is untraceable – the agent who got her from Orissa says he has no records suggesting that he ever brought her from her village to Delhi!” – The feverish pain predominant in Prerna’s voice had already begun affecting me as it were – for I immediately visualised, what an utterly hopeless situation she and her entire family were dragged into.
Prerna’s niece,Chabi, is all of 12 years - who lost her mother at a tender age, and was ‘sold off’ (about 6 months back) to an agent who lured her father and step mother with the promise of a “good household” to work in, as a maid.
Prerna hails from a remote village near Bhuwaneshwar, in Orissa – its people are poor, and their only source of income from farming, has taken a beating due to poor monsoons since the last two years. Trafficking of young girls from Orissa is one of the highest in the country…. figures show approx 4000 minor girls went missing from the area between 2000-2005; and often a lack of other options for livelihood compels these young women to never return to their roots again.
For now, Prerna’s saga has just begun…searching for her little niece; and lodging complaints at police stations and NGOs.