Meet Meena,  approximately 23 years old and mother to two sons, 9 year old Saurav and 7 year old Kunal (yes, Meena was just 14 years old when she gave birth to Saurav!) Meena is an orphan and has no recollection of her birth parents. She was unofficially adopted by a poor family in Karnataka. Meena was a welcoming addition to the family of four, a mother, a father,  brother Varun and sister Veena. Though poor, they doted on little Meena and enrolled her in a Kannada medium school. When she was six years old, her adoptive father was murdered. The family was devastated.

When Meena was 13 years old, her adoptive mother married her to Kirit.  The couple had two sons. When it was Meena’s sister Veena’s turn to get married, Veena ran away taking the family’s money and gold with her.  Their heartbroken mother committed suicide. 

Meena’s siblings committed suicide in quick succession. First Veena and then Varun, an unemployed drug addict. Though Meena had her own family now, a husband and children, she still felt like an orphan.

In her husband’s house things were bleak and dismal. Meena’s mother in law was involved in prostitution and verbally and physically forced her daughter in law to also get into prostitution. In 2021, when Meena was 19 years old, she was told to go to Solapur as there was a job as a cook waiting for her. When she reached the address in Solapur,  she discovered there was no cooking job waiting for her. She had been sold by her husband Kirit for Rs 50,000 to a brothel. After three months of getting sexually exploited, Meena ran away but was found and beaten and threatened with worse if she ever ran away again.

In July 2024, Meena had enough. She didn’t care about being physically abused. She refused to have sex with customers and be a prostitute. While deciding what she should do with her and her children’s lives,  she discovered to her horror that Kirit, the man she married, had become a transgender. He didn’t have a stable job. He begged on the street and was surviving through prostitution. Obviously her marriage was over.  She was now a single mother and had to come up with a survival  plan soon.

On 16th October 2024,  Meena’s case was referred to us. After going through all the details, the first step we took was to visit the police station and file a Non Cognizable Report, NCR (a criminal offense committed by an individual which is generally less serious in nature)  against Meena’s husband and mother in law as they continued to phone and threaten her to get back into prostitution.  

Through our contacts, we got Meena’s children placed in a government run children’s home.  Now that the single mother’s children were safe and her in-laws were out of her life, she could finally focus on making something of her life. She wanted to learn various skills and become independent.  We knew which organization would help her achieve her goal.  It was the same organization where another referral case of ours, Diya (referred to us by the Child Welfare Committee in December 2020) was thriving as a seamstress and doing well.

On 23rd October, we  got on a conference call with the team from the organization and Meena.  They offered Meena a slot and Meena was excited and agreed to be part of their training program. 

Today Meena started her basic tailoring training.  Today she believes is the  first day of the rest of her life. Today she is going to learn how to stitch and tomorrow she will learn to stitch like an expert. As she advances in her training she will get a monthly stipend and will even be provided food and accommodation. Meena finally feels safe and excited about life.

The road to restoration is rarely easy. Meena had multiple reasons and seasons to give up but she didn’t. We have seen the same resilient spirit in many of the victims and survivors we rescued.  We encourage them to fight, not just for their children but for themselves and for the next victim who will be inspired by their story of courage and grit.