The woman, who was sold to a brothel in Pune for Rs 50,000, was in a rescue home for the last seven months, and hence missed out on the demonetisation deadline
The survivor holds up her old currency notes worth Rs 10,000
When she was rescued from the brothel in Budhwarpeth, Pune, in December 2015, she had bigger battles to fight. This Bangladeshi national, who had been lured to India under the false pretext of a job, and was instead sold into commercial sex work, had to first find her way home. But now that clearance from her home country to accept her back has come through, she has tweeted a hand-written letter to the Prime Minister to help her convert the Rs 10,000 she had saved in the old denominations to new ones.
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In her letter to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj, the survivor has laid bare her circumstances and how the money she had collected as tips from customers - amounting to Rs 10,000 - was in the possession of the brothel owners at the time of demonetisation.
India calling
The Bangladeshi woman claims that before coming to India, she had been in an abusive marriage for three years. After divorcing her husband, she took up a job at a garment factory in Bangladesh for Rs 9,000 that she used to look after her parents. There, one of her colleagues told her about contacts in India and how she could earn as much as Rs 15,000.
"As my financial condition was not good, I agreed to it and he brought me to Vashi. where, to my horror, he sold me to a Nepali women for a mere Rs 50,000," the survivor writes. "I was then taken to Bengaluru and handed over to another woman who forced me into prostitution. Later, I was assured that I was being sent back to Bangladesh, but instead ended up in Pune."
After a year-and-a-half of this torture, she was rescued in December 2015 with the aid of the Rescue Foundation, but all her belongings, including the money stashed away, were left behind at the brothel.
The sex worker's tweet to the Prime Minister and Sushma Swaraj
After rescue
After her rescue, she was sent to a rescue home, while the police initiated the procedure with the embassy to send her back to Bangladesh. Early in April, clearance from the Bangladesh government finally came through.
However, after she flagged the issue of her money left behind, the Rescue Foundation got involved again, and with the aid of the local police, busted the den two weeks ago and recovered her hidden stash. Unfortunately, it was all in the old denomination. So, the organisation has tweeted a letter on her behalf to the two top leaders, seeking their help to convert the notes.
"In my home country, my family is not aware of what I have been through. I had told them that I would be doing a good job at a decent salary. Instead, I had to sell my body and soul to earn this money. I come from a very poor background and can't let this money go to waste. It was my bad luck that I lost everything here. This is a huge amount for me to start a new life," she said, while talking to mid-day.
NGO speaks
Dipesh Tank, project director, Rescue Foundation, said, "We have asked the government to consider this as a special case. Most of the victims of human trafficking are not educated; they are unaware about the important decisions taken by the government. We are very hopeful, as we have previously too helped hundreds of girls exchange approximately Rs 6 lakh in old currency to new."
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