Age: 29 years
Binita was a very mischievous child growing up. Her parents moved to West Bengal, when she was very little. She lived there with her parents and six siblings. Except for Binita and her younger brother, all the other siblings were married and lived away. Binita’s family was very poor as her father was a daily wage laborer and her mother a housewife. The entire household depended on the meager earnings of her father.
When Binita was 11 years old, her mother became very sick, leading to a financial crisis for her family. There was no money for her mother’s treatment, so Binita thought of taking up some work to support the family. One of her neighbors took advantage of the situation and offered her work in Mumbai. Helpless and vulnerable, Binita took the offer and went with her neighbor to Mumbai. There she was sold for approximately $2,400 to a brothel in the red-light district.
At the tender age of 11, Binita watched other women at the brothel dress up to meet their customers, and she was made to do the same. Binita was shocked. She had no idea what to do. She was scared and just kept crying. When she refused to serve customers, the brothel owner beat her up and locked her in a room, not giving her food. Out of fear, Binita agreed to attend to customers in the brothel. Being very young, customers were willing to pay a high price for her. One day, she found a chance to escape from the brothel, and she decided to run back to her village. On the way, she met a policeman who assured her he would help, but instead of taking Binita to the police station, he took her to a different brothel in Mumbai and sold her there. In this brothel, Binita was kept in an isolated dark room for more than seven years, where she did not see sunlight for all those years.
As time passed, Binita started to accept life as it came. As an adult, she was allowed to go out, and one day she decided to go back to her village to see her mother. After seeing the deplorable condition of her family, she returned to the red-light area. Binita did not know any other way to earn money to help her family. Years passed, and she fell in love with one of her customers and started living with him. She became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl. However, after her daughter’s birth, Binita’s husband started physically abusing them. Binita and her baby girl both became sick and were helpless. That’s when YouCanFreeUs rescued Binita and her baby girl from the red-light area.
Binita is happy that she is out of the dreadful life that she was living. After living a life of abuse and exploitation, she can now breathe freely. After living in darkness for so many years, she is happy to be in the light.
After having her childhood taken away from her, Binita almost started life from the beginning at YouCanFreeUs. She learned to look after herself and also care for her baby. She is now a loving mother to her four-year-old daughter and living a life of dignity and self-respect. She has completed a tailoring course and dreams of opening a tailoring shop one day. YouCanFreeUs found a job for Binita at a residential school as a caretaker, and her daughter has been admitted to a residential English school. Benita and her child are thriving.
