Big Dreams come true.
With the support of many.
It all started with the book we published namely 'Njan enna Murivu' with poems & stories written by 'Saya', a Bangladeshi lady who escaped from the clutches of a sex racket. It hit the headlines in Bangladesh too and the Prime Minister’s office there sent a note to the Bangladesh High Commission about this. When the High Commission contacted us to congratulate us for that effort, we informed them about a total of 11 Bangladeshis who were stuck here.
On our request Mr. Mosharaf Hossain, the Minister Consular of High Commission visited these homes and interviewed all the 11 Bangladeshis on 16-01-2016. On that basis, the Bangladesh High Commission issued the travel permits on 25th January 2016 for all the 11 people. The validity of permits was for 3 months, but unfortunately it went missing. Nobody had any clue where it was. Mr. Mosharaf Hussain then sent me the soft copies of the travel permit of all 11 people and we did a campaign with the help of media, lawyers & the staff in these shelter homes to pressurize the authorities for processing the repatriation with the soft copies of travel permits, before it gets expired.
After persistent efforts we could achieve a major breakthrough on 13th April 2016 with the sincere support from M.K.Raghavan M.P who traced the documents with the help of Intelligence Bureau. The City Police Commissioner then received an order which originated from the Director of Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India to deport all 11 of them before April 24th, which was the expiry date of their travel permits. Based on this order, though the men were deported, our authorities blocked the travel of 4 girls on grounds that they were needed here for court proceedings.
Eight months long struggle finally came to an end on 12th August. The high court has now ordered on 12th August to send them back home as early as possible, since the detention of victims is arbitrary and grave human right violation. The petition in high court was filed by Punarjani Lady Lawyers’ initiative & Arm of Joy had offered all assistance for the same. The travel bags will come handy now, which infact were given to the girls 4 months ago, when we could arrange their travel permits for the first time.
The Bangladesh High Commission had sent fresh travel permits again for the girls in June 2016 to the address of Arm of Joy to avoid any further delay. Arm of Joy had also organized assurance for video conferencing in writing from the respective District Magistrates of the home districts of girls. The same were submitted at High Court by Punarjani Lady Lawyers’ initiative and the court said that Video Conferencing facility should be utilized in such cases.
Arm of Joy had also sent a petition to Hon’ble Justice Sri. J.B.Koshy, Chairperson, Kerala State Human Rights Commission on 26th April 2016. Based on this, the human rights commission decided to visit Mahila Mandiram. On 22nd June 2016, Sri. P. Mohandas, Member of Kerala State Human Rights Commission visited Mahila Mandiram and interviewed all 3 girls from Mahila Mandiram & one girl in After Care Home.
After talking to girls, Sri. Mohandas held a press conference at Mahila Mandiram and declared that it is a serious case of Human Rights violation that the girls are facing.
The commission further ordered the concerned police authorities to file an explanation on why the girls were detained for such a long period. It also requested the National Human Rights Commission to intervene in the issue of the 4th girl whose case is at Bangalore. Even after 2 years, the Bangalore Police had not even taken the statement of the girl.
The case of all 4 girls was also brought to the attention of Sri. Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of Kerala on 12th June 2016. The petition that Arm of Joy had sent to the Honorable Governor of Kerala in April was infact forwarded to the Secretary of Home Affairs by the Governor and the request was made to the chief minister to consider the same.
Arm of Joy could arrange travel permits for one boy & another 6 men in District Jail, who were detained here due to the lack of proper documents like Passport & Visa.
The six men & the boy crossed the border on 24th of April. Arm of Joy had co-ordinated with an NGO in Bangladesh named Rights Jessore, to receive them at the border and assist them in their paper works to reach back home safely.
The greatest journeys are the ones that take you home. And itz a super feeling to be a reason for such a journey in somebody else’s life. Two sisters, named Roopan & Sylvia, living in the government shelter homes at Kozhikode were taken to their homes in Jharkand by train. The expenditure for Journey & others was sponsored by Sarika from Dubai and the co-oridnation in Jharkand was done by Jeseena from Ranchi.
Roopan who came to Kerala years ago with her husband for daily labour, somehow missed him at the railway station then and was clueless what to do. The police took her to Govt. Mahila Mandiram and she had to spend 8 long years in depression without being able to reconnect with her family. She couldn’t even remember her exact address and had almost given up the hope of going back home.
It was a few weeks back that a staff at Mahila Mandiram told us about her story. When we spoke with the lady for sometime, she was trying hard to recollect things. We promised that if she can give us some clue, we will try our best to make her dream of going back home, a reality. In her extremely colloquial hindi, she communicated certain things and we noted down the bits & pieces.
We looked for some links from Jharkand and eventually got in touch with Jeseena, who works as a doctor in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkand. We called her up & the rest was a fruitful series of conversations with her to ultimately locate Roopan’s house in Ranchi.
The other lady, Silwiya who was brought to Govt. Short Stay Home by police about 10 months ago hails from a remote village in a district named Gumla. She somehow reached Vadakara Railway station and was wandering there, before police spotted her & brought to Short Stay Home. Though she was not in a state to explain how she reached here, she luckily had her Voter’s ID card with her. When we send across the soft copy of the ID card, the ever enthusiastic Jeseena got in touch with her family in a matter of hours, so that Silwiya can eventually meet her two sons & a daughter once again in her life.
Both the families of Roopan & Silwiya were from a very poor background and were not confident enough to make a train journey to Kozhikode and take them home. So we thought to take these ladies all the way to Jharkand & witness the joy of their reunion with families. The office of Commissioner of Police, Kozhikode had sanctioned police escort for the 48 hour journey to the capital of Jharkand. Thanking our dear lawyer friends of Punarjani Trust, Zeenath & Sapna for their active & consistent support in ensuring that all the formalities in the offices of Chief Judicial Magistrate & Commissioner of Police are completed on time.
Before leaving to Jharkand, we gave a special gift for Roopan. A brand new wrist watch as per her wish. Also a travel bag was gifted for Silwiya for carrying her clothes & all to Jharkand. Kozhikodan Halwa & Chips were also gifted for the families of Roopan & Silwiya.
The journey to Jharkand was in Aleppy – Dhanbad express, which started on April 1st. Roopan & Silwiya were quite excited as the train reached Ranchi, the capital of Jharkand on April 3rd. The relatives of Silwiya from a remote village in the district named Gumla had come to Railway Station to receive their dearest one.
Even though, it was a Sunday & Naxal bandh in Ranchi, the authorities ensured that the handing over procedure happens smoothly without any time delay. The representatives of the District administration of Ranchi & Gumla districts and those of Social Welfare department were also present on the occasion.
Roopan’s relatives had not come to station and hence we took them to her home in a village outside the city of Ranchi. The entire procedure of handing over these two ladies was over in about 2 hours, thanks to the stunning professional approach of the authorities in Jharkand. The Mukhya, of Roopan’s village handed over Rs.30,600/- to Roopan’s brother, which she had earned by doing various jobs in Mahila Mandiram.
Happy ending for the story as the ladies got reunited with their families. Special thanks to Jeseena & her husband Aboobacker Siddique IAS (District Collector, West Singhbhum, Jharkand) for co-ordinating with all the concerned authorities and ensuring a smooth handover.
