How a 16-year-old tribal girl was rescued from the clutches of her family

 

A 16-year-old girl was taken captive by her own family members. She became a prisoner in their hands. The ‘prison’ was bizarre. I went there to see for myself what was happening and to write a news report. This was in 1996. I was then working for A P Times.
It baffled me as to how the family could have come up with such an idea.

“It is the idea of a relative of the family,” the villagers told me. I travelled to this far-flung village in Mahbubnagar district to see this, and what I learnt was something I felt was criminal.
A room was constructed for the girl to stay in. Here’s the catch. There was no door to the room. She could not come out of it, even if she wanted to. She had to use the same room to attend nature’s calls.

From a small opening in one of the walls, she was given food to eat. This completely enclosed space was all her world. “Why?” I asked the family.

“People are already flocking to our place from nearby villages in large numbers. They are paying obeisance to her,” the parents told me.

“But why is she enclosed in a room like that? She cannot come out,” I asked. The room would have been something like 8 ft by 10 ft. As I mentioned, all four walls had been raised with a roof over them and no door, except for a small opening that served as a window through which she was given food.

I wanted to speak to the girl.

“She does not speak to anyone,” they told me.

“Does she herself not speak to anyone or do you not want her to speak to anyone?” I asked them.
“People come wanting at least to see her, but they are not even allowed. They can drop any offerings they bring into the boxes we have arranged,” the family told me.

I insisted that I see the girl who had been confined to the room with walls raised on all four sides and without a door. No, there was no scope from the roof either.

“The girl’s relative works in Mumbai. This is his idea,” some villagers with whom I had spoken told me. Some of the villagers themselves were amused at the happenings, though some people from neighbouring villages had already started making a beeline to the place to perform rituals.

I persisted in my efforts with the parents. “How do I know that the girl is actually in there?” I asked. “Everyone knows,” they said, trying not to entertain any questions from me.

For a long time, I felt defeated in my efforts at ascertaining some facts. I went to the reluctant parents once again with one last request. “She will not come to the window and you will not see her,” they said firmly. I put forward a proposal to them. “Do you give her food on time?” I asked.

“Of course, we do. We do not let her go hungry,” they said in self-defence.

I compromised on my demand. “I at least want to listen to her voice so that I will know for sure that she is indeed in the room,” I told the parents. “She is not allowed to talk to anyone,” the parents said.
“Okay. I do not want her to talk to me. Neither will I talk to her because of the restrictions you have imposed,” I said. This was acceptable to them. They did not have to allow me to see her. They did not have to allow me to have a conversation with her.

“When you take food for her and place it through the opening in the wall, I want you to call out her name loudly. I would like to listen to her respond to you when you call her,” I said.
The arrangement was accepted.

I heard her voice. The 16-year-old Banjara tribal girl was trapped inside.

From talking to the villagers, I could make out that they saw the girl’s fate being ‘sealed’ as part of an idea by her relative, who wanted to make money from the offerings people would bring. They did not approve of what was happening but felt it was an internal matter of the family and therefore did not oppose it openly.

After gathering all the details, confirming and reconfirming the facts that were needed, I went back to Hyderabad the same day. The next day, my report was published in A P Times, the newspaper I was working for.

It was not just my newspaper that wrote about the exploitation of the girl. Other newspapers also wrote about it.

I got a call from a government official who had read my report. They took down details of what I had seen and the location details. Revenue officials and the police went to the village and got the girl freed.

The girl was free again.