Sex worker tweets to Modi, seeks help to convert Rs 10,000 in old notes
She was rescued in 2015 and was fighting her battle to reach home in Bangladesh due to which she missed deadline to deposit banned notes.
New Delhi: A Bangladeshi national, who was rescued from a brothel in Pune in 2015, has sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get Rs 10,000 she had in old denominations convert to new ones.
The woman was lured to India with the hope of being given a job but she was sold to the brothel that pushed her into the sex trade, according to a report in Mid Day. Although she was rescued in December 2015, she could not get the notes converted because she was fighting her battle to reach home to Bangladesh.
A picture of her letter was tweeted to Modi after Bangladesh cleared her request to return. In her letter, she explains to the Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that she had collected the amount as tips from her customers and they were in possession of the brothel owners at the time of demonetisation.
After being in an abusive marriage for three years, she divorced her husband and took up a job at a garment factory in Bangladesh for Rs 9000 and also looked after her parents. However, one of her colleagues told her about a job in India where she could earn Rs 15000.
"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 wrote. "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,” she added.
In December 2015, she was rescued with the help of the Rescue Foundation after more than a year's torture. However, all her belongings and the money were stashed away at the brothel.
With the help of the Rescue Foundation and the police she was able to recover her stash from the brothel when she brought it to their notice that some of her belongings were still back there. Unfortunately, it was all in old denominations.
The organisation had tweeted the picture of the letter to the two top leaders, on behalf of the Bangladeshi woman. "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.
Dipesh Tank, project director, Rescue Foundation, said that the organisation has requested the government to “consider this as a special case” as most of the victims of human trafficking are “unaware about the important decisions taken by the government”.