PANJIM: I am Mary, (name changed) aged 19. I was staying with my dad’s brother close to Panjim for the past 6 years.
When I was just two my father passed away. Then after I was 6, my mother left me and my mother’s cousin brother brought me from Bombay to Goa. I lived with them in Siolim till I was 12. Then out of the blue, my dad’s brother came to know that I was in Goa and he and his wife took me and kept me with them. They put me in school.
This is the story of a young girl, for all purposes an orphan. She was taken in by relations, who then took advantage of her, making her slog like a hired help, abusing her and assaulting her when they felt that she was probably not putting in what they felt was her best. Here is her horror story, told to us by her as she sat shivering with fright in the Herald office. She came here when she was told that this newspaper would raise her voice and fight for her.
Life was lived between thrashings. “His (uncle’s) wife started doing the same to me also. Before going to school, they made me do all the work early in the morning and then go to school. And when I came back from school I had to eat the cold rice from the fridge. My uncle’s mother in law also hit me and it was very painful,” she says.
“I studied, but in my 8th standard I failed and just did not continue anymore and got fed up. After that for the next three years they kept me at home,” she reminisces, saying, “ I was a total slave.”
She then undertook a beautician’s course at Mapusa but “he cursed me there too because of the fees he had to pay. I did the course and then joined a saloon in Porvorim.”
“When I got my salary they started taking my salary from me and told me that they are putting it in the bank. But I had never opened an account. They never took my signature nor did I fill any form. I have never seen my bank book. They even took my commission and tips,” she said adding, “They never even allowed me to use my cell.”
She finally ends saying “They have four months of my salary and commission. All this time I have had to suffer the pain and the abusive language. So I decided to leave the house. I suffered all this for many years. All this time I did not know what to do.”
Finally, on June 12, she decided to try and change this life. Picking up just courage, she complained to the police, who refused to even register her case and instead called her relatives.When she was forced to go back to them, her relatives told her that she was not being paid because she was given food for all these years
The police, not surprisingly, sided with her uncle and showed no sensitivity towards her. “After it started getting worse, I decided to leave. I was forced to go to the Calangute police station to file a complaint,” recounts Mary, adding, “I filed it with Police Sub Inspector S G Pednekar. He neither gave me an acknowledgement but instead told me to come at night. Moreover, Pednekar asked me that as I had stayed with my uncle for six years, the salary that he kept was to pay for the food that I ate.”
She complains further, exposing the utter callousness and the lack of sympathy of the police.
“They did not even take me for a medical examination after I went to the police station with blood on my face and head, after yet another round of thrashing, she said.
She called the women’s help line and also Bailacho Saad and was directed to go to the women’s police station. “There they registered the complaint. But three weeks later, no FIR has been registered and to add insult to injury, the police have merely called the uncle and told him not to “trouble” her.
But all wasn’t lost. She says that one of her aunts has now given her shelter and for the moment she seems to be recovering and resting. But her uncle and his family are still free when they should not be.
Herald can only assure that it will do all it can to ensure that this story is heard and ‘uncles’ such as these have to face a lot of trouble.
Uncle’s house, or torture chamber
Lost both her parents by six, forced to live with uncle
Made to work like a slave and beaten daily
Salary and tips from beauty parlour seized
Survived on cold rice
