On International Human Rights Day, Anita, an 18-year-old domestic help was rescued from the claws of her employers. After fifteen years of brutal torture, exploitation and starvation at the hands of her employers who are said to belong to the business class in West Delhi’s Vikaspuri, she was rescued with the help of a local NGO and DCW.
She was brought from a village in Jharkhand by a woman whom she calls ‘masi’ when she was barely three-years-old. She recalled that her father died while her mother is alive and living in a desolate village in Jharkhand. Kept as a domestic help in the businessman’s house, she was brutally beaten, emotionally abused and often starved by her employer, Manju Sondhi. Meena Das, a DCW counsellor who was part of the rescue operation said: “She does not remember her village. She was kept as a slave for 15 years. She has been inflicted with many injuries on her body and has been living in constant fear for the past 15 years. She told us that her employer, Manju used to beat her ruthlessly and used to make her work from 8 am in the morning till 1.30 am at night. She was not paid a single penny for the work she has been doing.” Based on a tip-off from a local NGO, a team of SDM and DCW reached Sondhi’s residence in Vikaspuri on Thursday. She was then taken to the DDU hospital for a medical examination,” she said.