(Trigger warning: This article contains description of violence and sexual assault.)
"My niece decided to move out of Darjeeling to earn a living and fend for herself and her two-year-old daughter. She wanted to provide a good life for her daughter as she is separated from her husband and did not want to be dependent on him," Gangamaya Ghising (name changed), a resident of West Bengal's Darjeeling, told The Quint over the phone.
Ghising's 30-year-old niece was allegedly raped and tortured by a man she befriended online at his apartment in South Delhi's Neb Sarai. She was taken to AIIMS, Delhi, and later to Safdarjung Hospital, where she is currently being treated.
The Neb Sarai Police on Sarurday, 3 February, arrested 28-year-old Paras, an Uttarakhand native who worked as a cook at a dhaba, in connection with the crime. He has been charged with rape, sodomy, and causing harm.
'Accused Gave False Promise of Marriage'
According to the police, the incident came to light on 30 January when the Neb Sarai police station received a call informing them of the alleged assault. A police team rushed to the location, rescued the woman, and rushed her to AIIMS, Delhi, officials said.
During the investigation, the police found that the survivor, who was living in Darjeeling, became acquainted with Paras over the phone in the course of the past three to four months. Paras allegedly offered to help her 'settle down' in the capital.
Thereafter, the police said that the woman came to Delhi with her daughter on 15 January and started living at his Neb Sarai flat.
"The accused promised the woman he would get her a job as a caretaker or cook, but started raping her on the pretext of marriage. On 1 February, he raped her again. When she confronted him about marriage, he refused and assaulted her with kitchen utensils," a senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, told Hindustan Times.
"As the woman started screaming for help, the accused picked up a metal pot with daal (lentils) in it and poured it on her. The accused again hit her and locked her in the room. The woman was locked in the room for five-six hours with her child. She managed to find the landlord's number and called him for help. The landlord then arrived at the flat and helped her out."Senior police official, as per HT
Ghising, however, told The Quint that her niece did not inform her family that she was in Delhi. "She had informed us that she had got a job as a maid in Bengaluru and she boarded a train on 14 January. She didn't tell us she was in Delhi living with Paras. We assumed she was in Bengaluru because that is what she told us," she added.
The police filed a case against Paras under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 376 (rape) , and 377 (sodomy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
'Separated From Her Husband 6 Months Ago'
Ghising told The Quint her niece had separated from her husband around six months ago and had been looking for a job.
"My niece could study only up till a certain level because she came from a family with limited means. She had to even drop out of school to support the family. But in our hometown, there are only limited jobs that a woman – especially an uneducated woman – can do. They either have to work in the tea estates as pluckers or as a daily labourer," Ghising said.
She added that as these tea estates were closing down one after the other, women were forced to take jobs outside Darjeeling.
Nirnay John Chettri, the founder of the Mankind in Action for Rural Growth (MARG), a Darjeeling-based NGO that has helped rescue many women overseas as well as cities in India from trafficking, told The Quint that this incident, unfortunately, is far from isolated.
"Ever since the violent agitation for the separate state of Gorkhaland that began in the late 1980s, unemployment has been a huge crisis in Darjeeling. As a result, many women are forced to move out from here and seek jobs elsewhere and even abroad. They often take up jobs as maids, receptionists, cosmetic saleswomen, etc. Since these women have little education and formal training, they are vulnerable and often end up falling prey to such situations."Nirnay John Chettri
"We have also rescued women/young girls who were victims of trafficking. They were taken to the city with promises of being given a job but were trafficked for prostitution and forced marriages," she added.
As per a research paper, International Migration of Women from Darjeeling District: The Question of Empowerment, the unemployment rate among women in Darjeeling is high in comparison with their male counterparts, which acted as the crucial factor behind their migration.
According to the 2011 Census, the percentage of non-workers among men in Darjeeling was 48.83 percent, while among women, it was 77.56 percent.
The paper argued that "the figure itself illustrates the fact that women have been exclusively affected by opportunities and lack of employment in the region. In this case, the increasing rate of population, degradation of tea industry, and agrarian changes" are attributed to the migration of people from the hills.
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