A child from Madhya Pradesh was forcibly circumcised by a neighbour from another community. The family of the child was left in dearth of treatment, security and money.
They were even boycotted for breach of peace” for complaining about the case, and pushed out of employment and housing.
Sewa Nyaya Utthan provided instant monetary support as soon as we heard the case. The aid provided sustenance for the boy’s treatment and their rented accommodation, giving them time to resettle.
We also wrote to the national child commission (NCPCR) for ensuring justice to the child.
A family complained to police their little son was forcibly circumcised. What followed was a barrage of more problems as their employer pushed them out of job and housing for “breach of peace”
We have given them an instant monetary relief for loss of income and boy’s treatment + pic.twitter.com/ZwDfFYJK8U
More details of the case, as posted by our co-founder Swati Goel Sharma.
Let me share a horror story of how a child from a Hindu family in MP was forcibly circumcised and NOTHING has happened to culprits at all. Far from cracking down on fanatics, system favours them while pretending to be just and secular. Victims are left alone and helpless
A 15-year-old girl, who went missing from the Loni area in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district was rescued after 10 days following sustained efforts by Sewa Nyaya Utthan team.
The minor girl, hailing from the Dalit community of Jatavs, had gone missing on March 16 this year. The family lodged a complaint at the Loni police station.
Although the police claimed to have found some leads and pinned on one Abid as the suspect, they had failed to find the girl even after a week. When Sewa Nyaya team learnt of the matter, a volunteer, Vishal, visited the family and recorded their video statement.
Sewa Nyaya co-founder Swati Goel Sharma shared the videos on social media. In the videos, the girl’s father Salekh Singh said he is not well off and allegedly did not receive whole-hearted support from the police. “If they know the name, what is the delay? Why can’t the police round up his relatives and question them sternly?” a sobbing Singh was seen saying in the video. He also said that he would commit suicide if his daughter was not rescued.
Sharma appealed to the chief of the National Child Commission, Priyank Kanoongo, to intervene. Subsequently, the commission sent a notice to the Ghaziabad Police on March 25, giving the links to the social media posts made by Sharma. The commission asked the police to provide an action taken report. On March 31, Singh informed Sharma that his daughter was rescued and that a few of her medical examinations were remaining.
Although our all-out efforts helped in bringing the abducted girl back, she had been sexually abused by the accused when he had the chance. The girl revealed that she was raped repeatedly and was about to be sold to a ‘Bangalan’ (Bengali). This was a case of kidnapping, rape and human trafficking.
The police booked the accused under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and also under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
In his video statement, Singh said that the police had made him run from pillar to post for registering his complaint. The police officer concerned chose not to comment on Singh’s complaint, saying that it was a matter of jurisdiction.
We at the Sewa Nyaya Utthan Foundation have always given utmost priority to interventions that save lives. We have not only rescued several girls but have also made sure to highlight every such case in which the police have been lackadaisical in their approach. Do support us so that we can continue to save girls in distress.
A 15-year-old girl was kidnapped from Loni in Ghaziabad@swati_gs and @SanjeevSanskrit highlighted the case and took it up with higher govt agencies
Girl was rescued after 10 days. Her father thanks us for intervention. We have assured the family of all support in her education pic.twitter.com/senacG5OoH
How harrowing life can be for a woman without family support can be gauged from the plight of Mamta Devi, a resident of Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh. She lost her husband 10 years ago. Since then, she has been living a life of misery. Her husband’s employer Madan had offered them land to live on, but when Mamta’s husband died without having cleared his dues, Madan started pressurising Mamta to leave the land. Later, Mamta learnt that the land actually belonged to the state government.
Madan, as per Mamta, sent his goons and demolished Mamta’s house, but she was undaunted and vowed to fight on. She approached the local administrative authorities and following their intervention, was able to remain on her land. However, with her house destroyed, she found shelter in a shanty made up of tarpaulin sheets. Her makeshift shelter has had no roof, no walls, no doors, no water and no washroom for years. She has been living in this hellhole for the past nine years under constant threat of eviction from here too.
After visiting her house, we were intrigued by empty buckets being placed here and there. Later, we came to know that those buckets were there for collecting rainwater that keeps on gushing into Mamta’s house. The chances of the culprits who broke her house down being made to rebuild the house are vanishing with every passing day. Sewa Nyaya Utthan Foundation has tried to draw the attention of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan towards Mamta’s troubles and called for his intervention in providing her a proper residence, but nothing has been done yet.
As per Mamta, Madan and his goons did not stop at trying to drive her out of her home; they tried to destroy her livelihood too. The hooligans broke her only source of income: a sewing machine. Sewa Nyaya Utthan Foundation has gifted Mamta a brand new and modern sewing machine.
Her house is in such a dilapidated condition that it is next to impossible for her to go out for work. By presenting her with a sewing machine, the foundation ensured that she had something to work with right away and some means to piece together her life.
When one of our team members reached Mamta with the sewing machine, she nearly cried out of happiness. It is this happiness on the faces of the downtrodden that keeps us going and is our ultimate prize. We have pledged to support Mamta in the future as well. Do support us so that we can save more people like Mamta from a life of pain, fear and despair.
Meanwhile, our struggle to get her a proper house, remains.
Since her husband's death 10 yrs ago, Mamta Devi has been living under constant threat of being evicted from her shanty. I appeal to @ChouhanShivraj to help the poor woman. She is from Gharola Mohalla, Shahdol, MP. Our team met her after learning of her plight from a news report pic.twitter.com/ueaU2osur2
Talks of communal unity and secularism sound all very well in the confines of air-conditioned rooms and over a cup of tea. Away from that sanitised environment, on the dusty lanes and bylanes of the country, however, the practicability of those ‘exalted’ ideas takes a massive beating. Religious hatred is a frightening reality on the ground, and those who are at the wrong end of it have a much bitter tale to tell than what the armchair opinion-makers would want us to believe sitting in their ivory towers.
Seventeen-year-old Ravi, a Dalit boy from Haryana, was one such victim of religious hatred. His mistake: He dared to befriend a girl named Mubeen.
Once, Ravi had gone along with his friend to wish Mubeen on New Year. Hours passed and Ravi seemed to be taking more time than usual at Mubeen’s place. His family members waited till morning, and when Ravi still did not return, they got really worried. They started searching for him. After considerable efforts, they finally found Ravi, but not exactly in a safe and sound condition. Ravi was lying on the road and bleeding profusely. His relatives quickly arranged for a private vehicle and rushed him to the nearest hospital.
The police revealed that while Ravi was waiting for Mubeen, he was attacked by her kin. Ravi cried for help, but his friend ran away in fear, leaving Ravi at the mercy of an irate mob. The mob beat Ravi mercilessly and left him to die on the road in a pool of blood. Ravi finally succumbed to his injuries.
You can read a ground report on the case by one of our co-founders Swati Goel Sharma here.
Ravi’s demise came as a bolt from the blue for his family. They had taken a loan of Rs 1 lakh for Ravi’s hospitalisation and treatment. The loan was taken on a significant monthly interest.
Ravi could not be saved, and if the loss of a loved one was not enough, there was also the spectre of creditors coming hunting for money. A family that barely managed to meet its basic needs could not fathom how to pay back the loan that it had taken.
Ravi’s case received substantial media attention, but still, could not generate any significant help from the wider society. That is unless we stepped in. We immediately transferred Rs 1 lakh to Ravi’s family. This allowed the family to clear its debts, for which Ravi’s father Vedpal never ceases to thank us.
True, it is beyond the power of anybody to bring Ravi back, and that nothing would be balm enough for the loss that Ravi’s family had suffered, but we at least could give his grieving family a shoulder to cry on. Unfortunately, there are people and organisations who fleece these vulnerable sections of society in the name of helping them. We at Sewa Nyaya Utthan Foundation have always been wary of such wicked designs and have gone the distance in helping those whom we meet or those who approach us.
Ravi, a minor dalit boy, was found killed on 1 January, 2021, in Haryana. That's how his poor family started this year
Ravi had gone to wish a friend New Year in a nearby village
We gave the family a relief fund of Rs 1 lakh. They had a mounting debt to clear